Bolton and Montez, PI
by Angkeats
Summary: Troy Bolton has escaped from jail and is out for revenge.Trent Bolton Troy's twin runs a P.I business and persuades his partner to take the case to find him.Gabi Montez is Trent's partner and a Native American with powers to help her find her man...
1. Prologue

Oh wow, thank you everyone for such wonderful reviews for the last story; it really surprised me and pleased me that you liked the ending!

So here is the new story- it's something a bit different than I usually write and my first attempt at thriller so go easy on me :p

Prologue

The clouds spelled trouble for Troy Bolton.

The dark underbellies of the threatening mass itched with their longing to release their load as they pushed by, plodding with unease.

The wind had picked up and he could smell the threat of rain as his skin crawled with the compounding heat, a heat that seemed to seal him into the cement pipe where he was hiding.

He didn't even know pipes came big enough to hold a human, but the circular bridge under and over him was a grateful resting place as the breeze whipped into the edges, creating echoey sucking sounds that made him shudder.

He didn't want to be out here when the storm hit. He didn't want to hear the thunderous bellows bouncing off the cold walls around him, unsettling him further. And he most definitely did not want to be wet through for the rest of his journey.

Still, he had yet to rid his tainted clothing and steal a new set to shield him from recognition. His hair was grown where it had once been short and neat. His tell-tale blue eyes were drowned by his fringe and if that wasn't enough, he'd changed his appearance too. No longer was he the gym-toned lean but slim guy that everybody once knew. No longer did he clean his nails and moisturise his skin and make sure his hands were smooth enough to run over a woman's skin without snagging.

Now he was a muscled machine, bulked and filled out- manlier than anyone could imagine. His hands were roughened, calloused-and not fit for any woman, he mused. He'd worked hard. Day and night. He'd kept his head down, done everything they had asked and he'd even taken a few beatings to become what he was today.

It hadn't been easy, it hadn't been enjoyable even, but he had been forced into this position and at the time he hadn't been willing to get out of it without gaining what he needed to survive.

His whole life depended on it. Without those fist-fights, without the endless days in his cell to work on his now-solid body, he wouldn't be crouching here deciding where in the world to go.

His old spirit had been driven away and a new Troy Bolton resided inside his body. One who wouldn't be crushed. One who wouldn't be held.

Troy Bolton had escaped.

And he had the strong bitter taste of revenge in his mouth as the fat rainfall pattered outside his shelter.

He just hoped the sheets of rebounding water wouldn't hold him for long. He had things to do. People to see.

Payback to deliver.


	2. Prison Break

Ah so glad you like the start. And flakeywhirl it hasn't been hiding anywhere :p

Thanks for the comments :D

I forgot to mention that this story was inspired by another brother story- an excellent one may I add called 'Is it Love' by Elle on Air- you simply have to check it out!

**Chapter 1 **

"Gabriella!" Trent Bolton called out to his business partner, standing from his desk with a folder in his hand, the sharpness of his movement causing the sheaf of papers inside to flush out, fluttering across the floor of his office.

"I see you're making a mess again," Gabriella leaned on the doorframe, her arms crossed over her petite body, her brown eyes warm with affection as she watched her colleague swear under his breath as he collected his papers.

"Damn open-ended folders…" He cursed quietly to himself, straightening eventually to beckon her in.

Gabriella lifted off the doorframe and unfolded her arms as she came inside, her tight pencil skirt lending a wiggle to her walk, accentuating the curve of her hips in her business suit. Her jacket matched the dark pinstripe of her skirt and was short, cut into the waist that was impossibly small and the white shirt she wore under it strained at the buttons, hinting at a cleavage she didn't actually own.

Trent watched as her long, curly dark hair washed down her back as she sat, taking the file for him and straightening the papers into order, her small pink lips pursing before she bit into the lower one, sinking her white teeth into the soft flesh there.

Once upon a time he might have dated a girl like Gabriella. Maybe even Gabriella herself. But although nearly everyone they knew had decided one day they would secretly fall in love, Trent had already settled down with his fiancée Jenna.

Gabriella was still single but he hadn't quite worked out why. He'd never got much beyond her business-like façade, her mask firmly in place whenever she stepped through that office door.

She frowned, looking up at him from the file, her mouth opening as she tried to formulate words.

"I know." He nodded his agreement.

"But…" She squinted, still trying to fathom the mystery of the words she had read.

"I can't take it. I have personal involvement. It means you'd have to work the case alone." He described, taking a breath before she gave her reaction to this news.

"Neither of us should take this case, Trent," she argued, licking her lips.

"No. _You _should." He insisted. "It's what you need to get to the next step you're always talking about."

"Super-intendant?" She lifted her brows, still confused. "How would this help me?"

"Because it would show you can carry any case- no matter what the connections." He replied honestly.

Gabi considered him for a moment, truly dumbfounded. The content of the file didn't seem to mean anything to him and yet it should. It should mean more to him than anyone else in the whole world.

"This file is on your brother," she cast out, her frown deepening as if trying to understand his willingness to take on the case.

"And I can help you find him." He supplied, his blue eyes devoid of any emotion.

"But why?" She asked, standing and clutching the file at her side, shocked at his disloyalty, to his very own family too.

"Because he killed a man. He's dangerous." Trent explained, squinting his eyes at the tiny Native American before him, her dark eyes saucer-wide and her face painted with surprise.

"But you'll let me go after him?" She smiled then, dropping her real emotions to cover them with humour.

Trent shrugged. "He wouldn't hurt you."

"You're sure of that?" She asked, heading for the door, looking over her shoulder and twisting to face him, her legs crossed girlishly as she paused for thought.

"If there's one thing I know about my brother, it's that he wouldn't hurt a woman."

/

Eating out of a garbage can was not Troy's idea of fun. Without using his threatening appearance to gain food- and possibly attention that he didn't need- he had to resort to extreme measures.

Soon enough he would be in town, close enough to steal better food, to find better places to sleep but for now he had to make do.

His stomach turned as he bit into the soggy, day old burger bun, probably half eaten by some punk kid who had too much money and more than enough food to stay alive, having chosen to order his burger only to impress some girl he was dating no doubt.

He smiled at his own warped thoughts and leaned his head back to the brick wall, hidden from view by the dumpsters outside the fast-food chain, his new outfit lending those who might see him to believe he was a tramp.

Well the clothes had come from a tramp so it was more than likely they did, anyway. That had been an easy exchange, in the dark of the night by the warmth of an iron canister fire, his old prison clothes exchanged for dirty old jeans and a scratchy tweed jacket that came to his mid-thigh. It scratched because he didn't have a t-shirt and now he wished he had found something to wear under the hot, itchy over-coat. It was annoying the hell out of him to have the material antagonising his skin for every waking moment.

_It was no use,_ he told himself silently. He just _had _ to get a tee-shirt.

The charity shop he found gave him an understandably wary look as he ducked inside; peering through the grimy window outside, checking nobody was tailing him. Satisfied there were no followers, he turned to the woman behind the desk.

"I need a t-shirt." He told her with a husk in his voice and a squint in his direct blue gaze.

"There's plenty here, for three dollars," she swallowed, venturing out to show him the sale rack.

"I don't have three dollars." He mused, tilting his head.

Her scared eyes met his, the green-grey confusing him for a moment as their gazes clashed, but then she pressed her lips together and swallowed again.

"You can take a pair of jeans and a t-shirt for free." She told him and he raised his thick brows quickly at her offer.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he twisted his face in bemusement.

"It's okay. I have your kind in here all the time. I understand you need dry clothes sometimes." She offered, heading back to the safety of her counter.

Troy licked his lips, looking down himself to find something he could offer in replacement.

"Take this," he slipped off the gold band on his right hand, laying it on the counter. It was the only jewellery he had worn into prison and the only thing he had come out with, apart from the clothes on his back.

Getting it back had been a nightmare but his inner circle of trading posts had finally come up trumps. He'd paid an awful lot of tobacco for that ring; he mused as she picked it up and studied it.

"This must mean a lot to you if you haven't sold it," she tipped her head, intrigued.

"Keep it." He insisted, quickly flicking through the racks to find himself an outfit, then turning to go.

"You shouldn't give your memories away," the shop owner touched his arm, bringing him around where he curved his shoulders in, conscious of his size to hers.

"A memory I'd rather forget," he explained, knowing that all of the time he had taken to get the damn ring back meant that by the time he actually owned it again, the piece of jewellery meant nothing to him anymore.

He smiled at her briefly, silently thanking her for offering his possession back, but now he was free of the shop, he was glad to be rid of it. If anyone found him and couldn't happen to recognise his changed form, they would have been able to track him down from that ring.

He sighed as he looked to the sky and saw nothing but clear blue. No more storm clouds to hide behind. No more rain to wash away his pain. This was it.

He had to find her.

/

Gabriella Montez knew that her business partner had a brother. It wasn't common knowledge exactly, but the pair were born two minutes apart and it was often said they looked exactly alike.

She had never had the chance to test that claim because she had gone into business with Trent after his brother was jailed. She hadn't heard Trent speak about the man in her file, but she had been told by their mutual friends- Taylor McKessie, the wonderful PA they both shared, and Chad Danforth, the head of Police that Trent considered his closest friend.

Taylor had told her the most, during one of their wine-filled girly evenings, spilling the entire story without so much as a breath of hesitation and the whole thing had seemed a little strange to Gabriella. Being a PI, being naturally inquisitive and nosy, she had questioned Taylor's version of events, never quite coming up with a satisfactory resolution.

Troy and Trent had dated the same woman. A woman who also dated a third man, apparently. The third man had been killed shortly after Troy had discovered this and yet he had never known about Trent. But Trent hadn't reacted at all. He'd carried on seeing the woman at the centre of attention and he and Jenna remained engaged to this day. It was odd business that was for certain. What was even stranger was that Gabriella had never met the harlot lady.

Of all the dances, parties, balls and celebrations, there was always a reason the elusive Jenna could not attend and it was only now, as she flipped through Troy's file that Gabriella began to wonder why.

She also began to consider if she should take on the case with so much inside knowledge. If she was going to find Troy it meant asking hard questions. To both Trent and Jenna and she wasn't sure she was cut out for it.

But Trent was right. If she _could _hold it together professionally and maintain momentum then when she cracked the case, she would have a great recommendation for her dream job.

_Should_ she do it, though? She and Trent were partners, what would this mean for their working relationship from now on? Would it make things awkward? Uncomfortable? Would Trent understand her need to quiz him and his fiancée- one who sat right in the middle of the whole mystery?

She sighed out as she sipped her coffee and leaned back in her chair, not sure where to start.

She looked back at the pages on Troy. The picture clipped to his bio showed him as a slim young man, tidy hair all trimmed and perfect. He didn't look like a man having a mug shot having murdered his fiancé's boyfriend in cold blood. His eyes were bloodshot, lined with hurt and maybe anger. But not malice.

She squinted, reading down the lines describing his age, height- same as Trent in all accounts. Troy had been a successful businessman. He hadn't become a police officer like his brother, he had ventured into the money game by gambling in Casino's, eventually owning one and creating his own wealth. She kind of admired that about him, she mused, even if she didn't know him

Trent was a straight up, law enforcing, law abiding man who was exactly what you saw, but she imagined his brother being a little bit more maverick- a little more wayward. Especially if his small brushes with the law here described were true. Drunk and disorderly. Indecent exposure. Shoplifitng.

She smirked, reading the blurb underneath to see he had stolen a bottle of whiskey from the liquor store- hardly anything to get worried about. But a man with money didn't need to steal so she checked the dates and recognised them as coming before his rise to wealth.

"What am I missing, Troy…?" Gabriella murmured to herself, flipping over the page to read his school notes, wondering if anything sinister might appear from the words printed there.

"He was jealous as hell that Jenna chose me," Trent spoke from behind her, making her jolt at his sudden interference into her thoughts.

"You do realise I will have to speak to Jenna first?" Gabriella posed to her partner, meeting his blue eyes.

"You can't," he supplied, blinking once.

"Why not?" Gabriella puzzled.

"Because she's in hospital." He explained.

"What? Why? You never told me…" Gabi gasped at his admittance.

"I haven't told anyone except her parents because right now we don't know if she will recover," he relayed sadly, twisting the gold band on his finger- the one that signalled their engagement.

"Trent, why on earth didn't you say anything?" Gabi stood, her concern evident first and foremost, her previous investigation into Troy's file forgotten.

"Because I don't want to think about it. I just want to believe she'll make it through." He swallowed, tears coming to his eyes.

"What happened?" Gabi begged in a whisper.

"It was always there, a heart murmur. We never knew, it never caused a problem," he began to explain and Gabi frowned in concentration, reading his body language as he spoke. The second she picked up this file, Trent became one of her sources and he didn't even really know it.

"Something changed?" Gabriella guessed, gently prompting him on.

"She's pregnant with my baby," Trent smiled sadly, meeting her eyes, his pain clear to see but again, she wondered why this news hadn't been shared.

"Oh, my!" Gabi ovalled her mouth and struggled to keep up.

"Only three months. We were going to tell everyone and then this happened- she fainted one day and we thought it was the pregnancy but they said her heart wouldn't cope with having a baby, too…"

"What's going to happen?" Gabi asked, afraid.

"If they can't get her heart strong they'll abort the baby," he shared.

"I can't believe you're only just telling me this…" Gabi sighed; shocked at the depth of details she had missed.

"I'm only telling you because it will help you find Troy," Trent admitted.

She frowned, wondering what he meant.

"It's obvious isn't it? He broke out to be with her. He must have found out about her being in hospital…"

"How could he?" She asked back, warily.

"He's not stupid. He has connections everywhere. He would know about this." Trent assured but something didn't sit right and Gabriella couldn't work it out but for now she had to play along.

"Well, that would certainly give me a start," she allowed thankfully.

"You should check the house, though. In case he goes there first." He added.

"Don't you think he'll come to find you first?" She wondered.

Trent smiled a thin line. "We're not brothers any more. He made that much clear."

"Mm," Gabi nodded with a million thoughts racing around her head for clarification. "I'm going to go and get the County State files, too. I'll be back later." She offered, meeting Trent's gaze again where she noticed his previous upset had melted away.

"You might not like what you find," he warned.

Only Gabriella had a feeling his words were just for show. She had a feeling there was something Trent himself was hiding and didn't want to be found and now she wasn't sure how she was going to find it without causing a huge mess in doing so.


	3. A Dark Day

LilMissEfronJackson has just posted a new story called Tomorrow Would Never Change and I think you should check it out. Cos it's good. :)

**CHAPTER 2**

He was clean. Kind of. The cleanest he could get using a public restroom sink on the wrong side of town- without actually getting himself shot or beaten up in the process at least.

He ran his hands down his damp torso, feeling the rough hiss of his broken skin against the smoothness of his body, a body that still surprised him with it's borderline grotesque build. He had overdone the work outs, he knew. He couldn't keep carrying this level of muscle but in there, inside, it was all he'd had to keep him going from day to day.

And it would protect him now.

He pulled on the t-shirt from the charity shop- the largest he could find but that still sat against his skin and shaped against his pronounced chest, his jeans roomier where he tucked them into his brown laced boots, slinging on the ugly, rough coat to keep him warm against the New York autumn crisp.

A shuffle sounded behind him and he turned, flipping his hair back as he watched an older man scurry by him to use the urinals.

He sighed with relief. No trouble here. He hoped it stayed that way, he needed to get to her apartment before long. Before he got noticed.

He was a striking sight, though. All dishevelled and handsome in his ruggedness and he began to grit his teeth against the unwelcome stares. If the cops came by here and gave these people his picture, he didn't doubt they'd mention seeing an intriguing stranger in town, even if they didn't recognise him from the last photo they had of him. It didn't matter that he had a jaw full of stubble; his eyes gave him away every time.

And he didn't need that. He needed to see Jenna and then he needed to run. Fast.

He didn't even know why he was going to see her, really. He'd given up on trying to justify her reasons for leaving him to rot in jail and when he'd handed her ring to that lady, he'd given up his last memory of her. But something deep inside him needed to know. He needed to know if she really had betrayed him in the worst way possible- with his brother of all people. He needed to know if he had really meant that little to her.

And his brother no longer existed. He had died a long time ago and now all that was left was a selfish, hated version of himself. Someone he no longer felt a family bond to, someone he no longer shared DNA with, shared an egg with, shared every meaningful moment of his life with. All Troy thought of when he thought of Trent was a reason to go back to jail for- willingly. A murder he _would _commit, unlike the one he had been wrongly jailed for.

And he didn't care if he served another forty years in that hole to exact his revenge. His brother was not going to live through his disloyalty and come out on top. Troy would get his payback.

And then some.

/

Curled up on her sofa at home, dressed out of her form-fitting work clothes and into some sweatpants and a vest, Gabriella absentmindedly fed marshmallows through her lips as she frowned with concentration on reading the remainder of her file notes on Troy.

The second she had picked up this file, her mind had been focused on nothing else and if she had any other work to do- it was now forgotten.

Trent had interrupted her natural thought process earlier and she was silently annoyed at his interference. She liked to let her mind wander and consider all the possibilities with no outside influences and with no attempts to sway her gut feelings.

And now she could have that time, she sighed, still finding no head way as she lay the file down, the notes printed into her mind but not meaning anything yet.

_Troy Bolton is a superb student- really bright, energetic and sharp-minded. He gets bored easily when he masters something quicker than the rest of the class- which is quite often, but you can often coerce him into helping his peers. He's friendly, charismatic and has a wide range of friends. As basketball captain you might expect him to hang with jocks and cheerleaders but I've seen him befriending the small guys in class- lending them some protection without shouting about it. An all round good guy. Couldn't ask for a better student- Mrs Darbus- Home room._

There was nothing there that would alarm her. No dark side, no undercurrent of violence or unhappiness.

She picked up the file again, only finding media shots of him as he opened his first Casino, made his first million etc etc.

She pressed her lips in, picking up the County file, hoping his prison notes might show more. Hoping to find something that Trent hadn't so far provided.

_Virginia State Prison- Hospital wing_

_July 10__th__- admitted with severe bruising and lacerations- suspected ambush from other prisoners_

_August 5__th__-cuts and bleeding to the knuckles- suspected fight_

_October 12__th__-hamstring injury- strained from training_

So he had learnt to fight back, Gabriella mused as she read the list of notes that painted a story of his hard time behind bars. The picture at the front of his file, of the orderly, neat businessman was not matching up to the fist-fighting, push-himself-until-he-breaks kind of guy that the prison notes described.

Just what had happened to him in there, she wondered? Why had he had to fight so hard? Who had it in for him?

She wished she could answer the hundred questions she had now, as well as the hundred others that tangled together from why he had escaped and not only that but _how._

He was in a maximum security detention unit. Nobody got out. Not alive at least. But he had. Which suggested he had someone on the inside. Now she had to find them. That was not going to be easy.

_A Dark Day_

_What was this?_ Gabriella tilted her head as a small slip of paper lay sideways in the file, crumpled and dirtied, but she fingered it with care as she slid it out, wanting to read the words scribbled there.

_A Dark Day. By Troy Bolton_

So he'd written a poem, had he? She smiled softly even though the title was hardly romantic, but again, she found herself secretly liking this stranger. If he had used his time to get fit and write poems, he couldn't be all bad, she reasoned.

_The sun rose black like the sky at night_

_My heart I knew in it didn't have the fight_

_My knuckles are bare and raw with blood_

_But you are my rose, my thorn, my red_

_Darker the edges of time may seem_

_How much longer the road could have been_

_My heart it is broken all days gone by_

_You are my dove, my eagle, you fly_

_The moon is unseen all hidden in shroud_

_The darkness around so quiet so loud_

_My fear it is growing it eats me alive_

_You were my love, my hope, my life._

Gabriella wiped a tear from her eye, shocked at her response to his words. So he had been betrayed. There was truth in Taylor's words, only she still didn't know how the pieces connected. Who was the third man in the puzzle? How had he got involved? Why hadn't Trent taken more of a disliking to the fact his fiancée-to-be was shagging two other men- one who was his brother?

By his own words, he felt like Jenna had chosen him over Troy. But was that really the case? Had Jenna been with Troy, looked for a way out and chosen another man and then mysteriously met and fallen for Trent in a matter of days?

How long had Trent had Jenna been together? Why had Trent even contemplated a relationship with his brother's ex?

There were too many questions and not enough answers and Gabi put down the second file with a resolution firmly in her mind.

She was going to get to the bottom of this, no matter what it took.

She just didn't like the frightened jump of her heart as she feared what she might find.

/

Jenna wasn't home.

With only the night to hide him, the moon to guide him and his hope to push him, Troy sank into the waiting shadows and vanished into a black envelope.

All he could hear was his breath and the ringing in his ears from the fear he had of the night. It had happened on a night like this, cold and still and filled with venom. He didn't know where his next meal lay; where his next move was or who he would go to and his freedom didn't taste all that sweet right now.

He missed the safety of his iron door and the bars that kept him in. He missed the sounds he knew well- the faces and the people he had learned to read if not to trust. He missed being kept inside those wrought fences, protected by guns and armour by the guards outside.

He even missed the fights a little.

In there he knew everything. Where he was going, who he could trust. Who he could talk to.

There had only been one, but he was the one who mattered. He was the one who got him out and he couldn't thank the man how he would like to, but he sent a silent prayer upward anyway, even as he shivered in the cold and let his frightened tears fall.

He had always hated the dark. Even as a kid. And when he had found Jenna's home dark and unlife-like, he hated it even more. Her home had always been warm, washed with honey glow and welcoming. Now no-one was home.

But where was she? He cursed as he realised she was probably at Trent's place now, playing happy families.

God, he hadn't seen that one coming.

He hadn't seen any of it coming and that's what hurt the most. He had laid his heart on the line and she had bulldozed through it.

The papers may say he was a heartless, greedy-rich billionaire with enough money to buy anything- or anyone he wanted. But back then, when he _had _been rich, he hadn't wanted anything but the love of the woman he shared his life with.

Only she had chosen the good brother. She had swapped sides, slept with another man and then finally settled on the better version of himself.

He laughed bitterly to himself in the silent alleyway, closing his eyes as his painful memories rocked him.

Damn, but he was past this! All he wanted was to kill his brother for stealing his girl and then everything would be ok.

Only something still niggled at him and he frowned as he popped his eyes open, sensing someone nearby.

He still didn't know who killed Derek, Jenna's dirty secret. Once he knew that, things might seem a damn sight clearer. He might actually know where he wanted to go and who he wanted to be. Until he knew that, he would forever be in limbo and now was his chance to prove his innocence.

If only he had the means to do it.

/

"Have you seen this man?" Gabriella held up a picture of Troy to yet another store owner, drawing a blank as they shook their head sadly.

"Sorry."

"Will you call me if you do?" She pleaded, handing over her business card and watching as it got slid underneath the till to be forgotten once she left the premises.

It was a recurring theme this morning. Only when she had plotted the map of Troy's possible route, using vague sightings and pure guess work, she had felt a glimmer of hope at finding something today on her thorough trek through Spin Street.

She was sure he had been here; she had spoken to several of the tramps in the shop doorways who had drunkenly convinced her the blue eyed stranger they spoke of could be her target. Only no-one wanted to share. No-one wanted to point fingers or dob him in and she felt faintly reassured that he had people on his side.

Cold-blooded murderers did not make friends, she reasoned. Only was his alleged murder committed in _cold _blood? If emotions were running high and Troy turned into the jealous boyfriend, it would have meant he killed in the heat of the moment, not in cool calculation.

Did that change anything, she asked herself? Did it make his crime any less severe? _No._ But it did give him more justification. Only…she frowned as an unreasonable itch began under her skin. Why did she feel like he wasn't capable of murder?

She'd never met him, knew nothing about him other than what his files told her and yet her gut was telling her something was off. Way off. And she always trusted her gut. She was American Indian for crying out loud, she had enough ability in her blood to know when her senses were right and this one was. Only she still had no idea how she was going to prove it.

That was the hardest part.

She sighed, pushing open the door to the All Saints Church Charity shop with a wary hand, smiling at the pleasant woman behind the counter.

"Good morning," the lady said.

"Hi," Gabriella replied, looking either side of her before she ventured over, deciding not to show the photo card this time. She wasn't sure why, but she guessed a different tack might work.

"Can I help you?" The lady asked.

"I'm looking for someone," Gabriella admitted.

"Oh." The lady dropped her gaze and fidgeted uneasily.

"It's okay, he's my brother. We had a fight and he left in a rush and I know he's been sleeping out here. I just want to find him," Gabi smiled.

"Okay, well what does he look like?" The lady asked.

"Kinda tall, about five, ten. He has brown hair and these really blue eyes…"

"And he's your brother?" The woman asked knowingly, tipping her head.

"We had different dads." Gabi lied again, meeting her gaze.

"He came in here two days ago." The woman confirmed, shocking Gabriella with her honesty. "Real polite guy."

"Really?" Gabriella lifted her brow.

"Yeah. He asked me for some fresh clothes and he gave me his ring to pay for it."

"He gave you his ring?" Gabi feigned hurt, trying to get a look at the item in question.

"Is it a present from you? It looked like an engagement ring…" The woman ruffled around in her bag and pulled out the gold band. "Here, it's quite nice."

Gabi lifted her brown eyes and met the woman's green-grey ones. "Can I buy this?"

The woman blinked, startling Gabi a little with her intense gaze.

"You can have it. It doesn't belong to me."

"Do you happen to know where he went?" Gabi begged.

"All he told me was that it held a memory he wanted to forget," the lady repeated and Gabriella nodded sadly, realising this was indeed his engagement ring. She knew because it matched Trent's perfectly and she couldn't understand how that was. How had two brothers- twins- end up with the exact same ring?

"Thank you so much for your help," Gabriella said gratefully, clutching the ring with emotions she didn't expect to feel.

Troy was alive. Why did that fill her with relief? And he was nearby and now she even knew where he was headed. That was progress and then some. And as she jumped back into her sporty little Audi, she slipped the ring onto her finger so that she wouldn't lose it, pulling out into the heavy traffic to head to Corner Town. To find Jenna's apartment.

/

It was no use.

He would have to see Trent after all. The one thing he had been avoiding and had wanted to put off for as long as possible was now unavoidable.

He let out a pained breath, wondering just how he was going to keep his calm long enough to get information from his brother without actually wanting to kill him. He didn't feel like he could guarantee he wouldn't right now.

He was back at the yard, in his circular home, outside the city where no-one could find him, see him or wonder about him and he laid his head into his arms as he fought the demons in his head.

_Trent deserved everything that came to him._

He had to keep reminding himself of that. It was the only thing that had kept him going day after day in that lonely, cold place where nobody visited and nobody cared.

It was the only thing that drove him to build his body, the only thing that woke him every day to keep his mind focused and yet, he wasn't ready to exact his revenge. He needed time. Time and information.

Without knowing just where Jenna was and what she was up to, he was aimless.

The sound of her name, even in his own thoughts, brought him a shudder. He had been a long time without love while he suffered in prison. Some of the inmates would arrange meetings with their wives- sometimes prostitutes too- and he had watched as they paid their price to release their natural sexual urges. But he hadn't done that. He'd been so angry, so hurt by what Jenna had done that he hadn't wanted to be with a woman at first and then, slowly, he had blocked it out. His need to be with someone. He had convinced himself the short physical pleasure was not worth the preceding trouble.

And there was always trouble where women were concerned.

But he missed a woman's touch. He missed being held and stroked and loved. He missed knowing that someone out there _got him_ in every way imaginable.

And although he knew he would never trust a woman again, he still knew he wanted _something. _Only he wouldn't allow himself to have it. He had more important things to worry about and girls came bottom of the list.

His confused emotions and hormones would have to wait. He needed time to adjust; to remember what it was like living in the real world. So far he wasn't doing a great job of acting normal.

He was still looking over his shoulder, waiting for the next fight, looking for the next attack, wary of being duped again. He wouldn't let that happen. He wouldn't let Jenna under his skin or into his heart only to destroy him again…but he couldn't help but wonder how he might feel when he saw her. _If _he saw her.

Would he really be able to cast her off the way she had him? Or would every raw emotion come running back?

_Why hadn't she visited? Why had she left him like that? Alone, with no-one to hold?_

And his brother too. His ex-brother, he amended silently. He didn't have a brother anymore. But the man was the key to his freedom and as much as he hated to admit it, he couldn't kill him yet.

But he could frighten him. He could remind him who was in charge, who had the upper hand. And seeing as Trent was the one who had let him go to jail whilst making a move on Troy's fiancée, Troy reasoned that he was the one with the moral upper ground here.

And so Trent deserved a visit.

/

"_Tósa'e nétao'sê-tsêhe_, Troy?" Gabi sighed, peering through the window of the empty apartment that Jenna occupied assumingly before she moved in with Trent. _*Where are you?_

She had looked around the entire property, searching for clues and finding none. It was heart-breaking knowing she could be so close to him and not be able to find him.

She twisted her lips and turned, plopping into the swing seat to think some more. Where else could he be? Had he really found out Jenna was in hospital and gone to visit? Should she have gone there first to find out?

She cradled her aching head in her hand as she became overwhelmed with the possibilities ahead of her and she tried to make sense of her thoughts, put them into order and create some kind of answer to the increasing puzzle before her.

_Jenna had to know something. She had to know how Troy had felt when he found out about her affair. _

Gabriella stood, resolving to pay a visit to Jenna in hospital. Even if she was unconscious and unable to speak, she might find some more clues there at least. Sitting here wasn't getting her very far.

"Oh, hello," a warm male voice called up from the bottom of the veranda steps, a smiley face accompanying the greeting.

"Hi," Gabriella smiled back, heading down to meet the man. He was mid-twenties but seemed younger, almost like the kid next door she mused.

"I saw someone round here yesterday I thought maybe it was you," he began, explaining his nosiness.

Gabriella looked up, her brows rising with hope. "Was it a guy you saw before?"

He shrugged. "He looked kinda sad."

Gabriella nodded, wondering how she could garner more from the neighbour. "I'm Gabriella. I'm a friend of Jenna's. I haven't seen her for a while and I didn't realise she had moved…" She held out her hand, waiting for the young man to take it.

He did and he smiled at her shyly, somewhat taken by her it would seem. "I'm Ryan, I live next door. Jenna moved a long time ago, did you know she was engaged?"

"To Troy," Gabriella nodded, playing her game.

"Oh…" Ryan's mouth ovalled and he looked sheepish.

"Not to Troy?" Gabriella fished, frowning convincingly.

"No…to Trent." Ryan shared. "She moved out a few months back but kept the lease here."

"Trent?" Gabi lifted her brows, feigning surprise. "Wow, a lot has happened since I last saw her," she chuckled lightly, meeting Ryan's gaze. "Did Troy come by here yesterday, then? Was it him you saw?"

"I just saw someone on the porch. Some big guy in a dark jacket." He shrugged, then licked his lips and ventured her a look. "Troy's in prison, you know…" He added.

She looked up, full of shock. "No! Since when?"

"Since he killed a guy." Ryan shared, shaking his head.

"Did you know him, then? Did you see him when he visited with Jenna?"

"Kinda," Ryan agreed, becoming uncomfortable with her questions. "He would say Hi and stuff."

"Why do you think he did it, then? Killed that guy?" Gabi wondered next, playing her part perfectly to convince him of her ignorance.

"Jenna was having an affair. The guy's name was Derek. He used to visit, too. I didn't like to ask…you know…" He twisted his lips. "It's her life."

"Sure," Gabriella nodded faintly.

"But I did kinda feel bad for Troy. He was always nice to me. She always used to say nice stuff about him. I don't get why she would cheat on a guy like that…"

"Do you know when they got together?" She asked and he looked at her funny, like she should know that.

"Are you really Jenna's friend?"

She blinked, unperturbed by his question. "I'm trying to help Troy," she admitted.

Ryan swallowed. "Well, I know I only saw Troy come round after he got in the paper. I thought you know, maybe he would be really snobby and that but he was the nicest guy like I said. I remember thinking that cos the papers always said he was arrogant and stuff…"

"Can you tell me one more thing, Ryan?" Gabriella begged. "Do you know Derek's surname?"

"Hoffman." Ryan nodded. "He's been coming round for as long as I can remember. Before Troy and Trent got mixed up with Jenna," he added knowingly.

"Thank you," Gabriella met his eyes and appreciated his input gratefully.

"You're welcome. If it will help Troy then I'm happy to tell you anything you need to know…" Ryan offered, twisting on the step as she went to pass by. "Do you think maybe he didn't really kill that guy?"

Gabriella squinted at him, lifting her face. "I don't know, Ryan. What do you think?"

Ryan dropped his gaze for a second and then brought it back up. "I don't think he did."

Gabriella nodded and smiled, walking away with a new thought in her mind.

_Jenna Brown was only interested in Troy because of his fame._


	4. So Close

AllIAskofYou-Thankyou I was having a really shitty day and that made me smile :)

In fact you all made me smile! So thank you.

**CHAPTER 3**

"Hello, brother."

It was dark inside the studio apartment that Trent apparently shared with Jenna only for once, Troy wasn't afraid.

Breaking in had been strangely easy- they never did put proper locks into these city exec places he mused. Well, not enough to stop a hardened criminal from breaking in anyway.

"It's about time." Trent threw down his jacket, not even shocked at the sound of Troy's voice as he sat slung low in his favourite chair, sipping a whiskey.

As he stood and ventured into the slitted light from the studio windows, dirty and grey from the tinted glass, Trent could also see he had helped himself to his wardrobe, choosing his most casual clothes to dress in.

"I thought I'd get more of a welcome than that," Troy smiled a glittering smile, danger alight in his eyes.

Trent pursed his lips, apparently unaffected. "You do know you can't do anything to me in here?" He asked.

"Oh, I know," Troy nodded, still coming closer with slow, precise steps. "I saw the CCTV and the sound bugs as soon as I came in here…"

Trent gritted his teeth and met Troy's eyes with something akin to fear. "I have other devices to record anything that happens to me in here."

"Sure you do," Troy licked his lips and grinned, knowing each of his previously mentioned systems were now disarmed.

"She's not here, Troy. You know very well she isn't."

"And how would I know that, _brother_?" He added the last word like he had a bad taste in his mouth. "It's not like you visited me any time in the last…ooh...two years?"

"You know she's sick. That's why you broke out." Trent accused and Troy's quickly lifted gaze told him otherwise. He really _hadn't _known that until he had just said it out loud.

"She's sick? How?" Troy squinted.

"What does it matter to you? You can't have her back." Trent goaded.

"She has something of mine." Troy explained. "Something I need before I can leave this damn place for good."

"If you mean your money, I think you may have a problem." Trent said knowingly and Troy flipped his fringe back, laying his glass down ever so carefully to one side as he came and stood before his brother, eye to eye with the man he wanted to kill.

"What did she do?" Troy demanded, knowing his money would all be gone. Every last cent of it. _Damn!_

_Knock knock._

"I should answer the door." Trent said, deliberately not answering Troy as he turned to go, but Troy tracked after him and pushed him into the door with a firm shove, pinning him there with his newfound strength.

"Just remember you maybe safe in here," Troy whispered into his ear, twisting his arm sharply behind his back to bring a wince of pain from his mouth. "But I learnt a few tricks inside and out there…you're not so invincible…"

Trent let out a yelp as his arm twisted impossibly high and then the pain subsided in the same second, leaving him to stagger back from the door, bewildered.

Troy was gone, nowhere to be seen. Just where had he vanished to, Trent wondered?

He took a breath, willing his heartbeat down. He didn't care. All that mattered was that he was gone. He couldn't help the quiver in his hand though, as he opened the door to finally answer it, his face composing into a masked air of control as he did so.

/

Derek Hoffman had been Jenna's high school sweetheart.

The pair met at sixteen, had fallen quickly in love and hadn't parted until Troy came onto the scene, several years later.

Derek's parents would have you believe that Troy had somehow 'paid' Jenna to be with him, therefore explaining her reason for leaving their golden-child of a son, one who could not be blamed for any part in the complicated events that followed Jenna's betrayal.

Gabriella wasn't so sure.

She had met Derek's parents by pure chance in the hospital. It seemed that although Jenna had wronged their son, they still held some kind of regard for her because they were visiting to give their support to her, and her family. Although Gabriella had yet to meet Jenna's parents, which didn't seem so odd considering the circumstances.

What confused her, was that Jenna had so quickly swapped from her high school sweetheart to the high-flying Troy so quickly. Apparently they'd had a whirlwind romance and been engaged within months, something that Gabriella found suspicious given Troy's previous history. He seemed liked the kind of guy who would take marriage seriously but then what did she know? He could be a whirlwind kind of guy after all.

But they had only been together a short while before Troy found out about the cast-off Derek. Something made Gabriella think Derek had been the one to go green eyed monster and she couldn't work out why, but Jenna was definitely playing some kind of game when she overlapped the two men.

And how had Trent got involved?

She sighed, knowing she would have to go back to the office and interview him later to try and piece the puzzle together some more, silently hoping she might find Troy before she had to have that conversation.

She needed to hear his side of events, hear his story. Just hear his voice even so that she could tell what kind of person he was and if he was capable of murder.

Right now she sat watching Jenna breathe through a machine wondering if the sick girl would ever wake and put an end to the fog that surrounded the mystery of the Bolton brothers.

She sure hoped so. She doubted she would ever get the real story from Trent and so far she hadn't found anyone else who linked to Jenna apart from her nosy neighbour and her best friend, Sharpay who Gabriella so far had been unable to find.

She guessed if she came here often enough she might be lucky enough to bump into more of her friends and maybe even find out some truths.

She headed outside, wondering where to go next, wondering where he might be as she retraced her steps back to her starting point on Spin Street. She looked to the map, checking for surrounding areas- parks, brush, anywhere that Troy might be hiding whilst he visited town, picking up the pieces of his broken life.

They had cops out everywhere, posters, and warnings. But so far, he hadn't been found. He was doing well, she mused. But he would need help soon. And she wanted to be the one to give it.

She frowned, reminding herself of her objective here. She had to find Troy and report him to the authorities. She had to bring him in. She was his bounty-hunter if you like and her obligation was to her job, first and foremost.

Then why did her heart scream at her that it was actually her duty to save him, to help the outcast escaped prisoner and bring justice to the right person? The right person who wasn't Troy. She closed her eyes, cursing her ability to see things beyond the material world around her, as well as appreciating her gift. If only she could tell _why _she felt he was innocent. If only she knew why she felt there was more going on than appeared to the eye.

All she knew was that her heritage raced through her veins like the hooves of a silver horse, guiding her where she didn't know she needed to be guided.

She looked around her, confused. _Where was she? _Somehow she had walked beyond the boundaries of Spin City and was now at the edge of a huge deserted building site, one that was penned in with fencing twice her height.

She frowned, not sure how she got there, but quickly accepting she was there all the same, searching for a hole to crawl through.

_He had been here._ Her heart beat with the knowledge and her breaths quickened at the excitement of it.

She was close now. So close. The smell of the wind told her so.

/

_So she spent the money._ Troy sighed and rubbed the heels of his rough hands into his eyes, feeling his headache throb painfully at the knowledge.

He had trusted her not only with his heart, but with his fortune and she had gone and wasted it away. No doubt Trent's studio apartment and all the furnishings inside had been part of her spree.

_Damn!_ Why would she do that? She _promised _him! She swore against her own life that she would look after his money while he was inside and yeah, she may not have wanted to see him, but he had hoped she would at least keep her word on that.

He could still remember the night he was taken away, the night they arrested him when the sky had been so black he felt like the stars and moon had fallen down and cast them all in ebony.

He could still feel the cold bite of the cuffs, the hurt cries of Jenna and the knowing smile of his brother. _Trent. _He still didn't know when Jenna had decided to swap him for his goodie-two-shoes twin, but something did not add up.

Derek had come to him, two nights before, banging down his door and screaming that Jenna was his girl. He had been pretty damn mad and Troy had been so confused at the man's words, wondering if Jenna had really ever called it off with the school jock she had dated for years.

When he had met her, he had been so swept up by her beauty and her wiles that he hadn't even considered she might have a dirty past behind her and that night he had found it all out, everything.

Only Derek had died. In the early hours of the day Troy was arrested. They found him, bound and gagged at his apartment and stabbed to death. Only Troy hadn't been in any fit state to murder anyone. He'd been drinking at this little bar in downtown Spin City but when he'd woken, mid-morning, he'd had blood on his hands and clothes and he was laying in the middle of a builders yard with nothing to show for his night of drinking apart from the unknown injuries he had caused.

He had assumed he'd got into some kind of fight. Maybe he's even cut his head in stumbling across this barren piece of land. What he didn't know was that the blood was of Derek Hoffman and that he would subsequently be arrested for his murder.

The evidence was convenient. He'd just discovered Jenna's affair, they'd argued briefly before he'd left for the bar and he might have even claimed he was going to kill the man. But back then, he wouldn't have. He didn't even know how.

Now, he might have the fire enough in his blood to actually do such a thing but before, before he was wrongly imprisoned, he wouldn't have dreamed such a thing.

So who had? Had Jenna done it? Had she wanted to stay with Troy and lose her past once and for all?

Had Trent comforted her while Troy rotted in jail and Derek rested in his grave? Had he stepped in to soften her loss and somehow fallen in love with her? Had Jenna fallen for his brother's amazing charm?

Whatever the reason behind the murder, he knew it wasn't him. But why would she promise to look after his money if she thought he had really done it? To betray him _again_? Did she think he deserved to lose everything because she really thought he had killed her ex-boyfriend?

He sighed, not knowing anything more now from re-living the whole painful episode and wishing he hadn't gone back there.

He looked to the sky and saw the clouds gathering, knowing he had to shelter before the storm hit and before the moon dropped. He couldn't face another unlit night tonight.

He had no money, no place to go and no plan. But he was free. And he would find a way out. He just didn't know how, yet.


	5. The Night

Max, I think I can manage that;)

Fudge2428- you got me! I'm a mad vampire diaries fan and I have loved Ian Somerhalder since I was 15!

Oh my pickles, lol x

**CHAPTER 4**

Gabriella looked to the sky with a concerned twist of her lips as she realised they were in for more rain.

She looked around her, seeing shelter in the muddy, abandoned builders yard and headed for a large cement pipe about two hundred feet away, visible through the rough scrub of trees on the plot.

He had been here, she knew for certain now. She had found a screwed up ball of paper thinking it was only trash and had opened it out of her instinct to investigate and had found words there that matched those she had read before- another poem by the man on the run. Only this was incomplete, unfinished and only bore two lines before it had been tossed away.

_The Night_

_Shelter me from the storm and rain and the darkness that chills my bones_

_Protect me from the shadows and demons that stalk me by moonlight_

Every time she picked up one tiny more clue, she felt ever closer to the elusive Troy. And she wished right now he were still harbouring in this broken shell as she felt the steady plop of rain hit her arms.

"Oh darn," she sighed, making a dash for the final few feet it took to get her to the empty hole created by the huge circle around her, the open ends of the gigantic pipe causing the wind to whip noisily there, chilling her with the whistling sound.

She shivered against the dampness of her clothes and sucked in a sudden breath, seeing a dark shadow moving across the land toward her safe hiding place.

_Who was that?_

"Shit!" The voice was annoyed and no sooner had he reached his destination, then he turned back and considered the alternative- to head back into the wash of rain.

"Don't go." Gabriella asked, her breaths short and sharp as she wondered if this were him, if this were Troy.

He didn't look anything like his picture and it was so dark now, she could barely make him out but he was tall and broad, and his soft jersey top clung to his muscles, showing her an immediate difference between him and his brother.

His jaw was shadowed with stubble and his hair was so long it almost covered his face and it fell over his eyes to hide them, only the blue there still sparkled under the messy fringe he wore and though she was frozen to the spot in fear, she was undoubtedly sure this was him.

"Who are you?" He wondered.

"I'm just like you," she lied. "I needed somewhere to sleep."

He squinted into the dark and she bit her lip, sliding down to the ground to wrap her arms around herself to add to her story.

"You're freezing…" He noted with a husk in his voice and she saw him pick up a jacket that had previously been neatly folded in the corner. She hadn't seen it- hadn't had the chance to until now and he approached with slow steps, seemingly trusting her for now.

"I just ran," she admitted, careful not to lie to him too much. For some reason she didn't want to and she wondered why that was, but then she looked up to him as he sat beside her, handing her his rough jacket.

"It's warm," he promised, seeing her frown at the abrasive material.

"Thank you."

"You came to find me." He said, tipping his head back onto the wall, linking his hands around his knees as he folded his legs up.

"How did you know?"

"Not many girls I know wear fitted trousers and flimsy blouses when they're running away from home."

Gabriella looked down on herself at his accusation and found her cream silk blouse had become nearly see-through from the rain. She blushed as she wrapped the jacket around herself tightly, and then looked to him with concern.

"Are you okay?"

He laughed, shortly, meeting her gaze with incredulous blue eyes. "How did you find me?" He asked instead, intrigued at her ability to do that much.

She shrugged. "I used my instincts."

He lifted one corner of his mouth, the grey light highlighting his move. "You did pretty well."

"I had to find you. I have your file. I'm a Private Investigator." She allowed, shocking him with her honesty.

"Wow, don't hold back now," he teased, flipping his fringe back.

"And I'm not just here to find you. I'm here to prove you're innocent." She added, surprising even herself on this line.

He looked to her and lifted his brows. "I'm not sticking around long enough for you to even try," he mused, intriguing her with his acceptance at her finding him, seemingly unafraid of her now.

She frowned her pretty face at him, her chocolate eyes beguiling him. He flicked his eyes over her beautiful, ethnic face and her curly, dark hair that ran down her back, damp and frizzy from the rain. He never knew a woman who wore a suit like hers to sit in the mud and get wet without complaint. Even in his jacket she looked ridiculous but he had a sudden inexplicable urge to protect her- as small and vulnerable as she was.

"I can't help you if you leave." She argued, the tip of her tongue venturing out to lick her lips.

"You can't help me anyway. I'm a doomed man." He shared, fidgeting before he stood, unsure if his urge to hold her was his body's way of telling him he hadn't had a woman in a _real _long time and somehow, he didn't want to risk the consequence of that particular need bursting out at this moment.

Gabriella thought hard and fast. There had to be something she could do to persuade him to stay, even for a little longer. She had to convince him that going on the run was not his only option.

"Do you want to see Jenna?"

Her words froze him from his antsy pacing, bringing him to a standstill in the large circular pipe they both shared while the rain ran on outside. The rain ran on, the night ticked by and Gabriella kept breathing as he heard it all but didn't move, his breath stuck at the mention of her name.

"You're wearing her ring." He told her back, not answering her question.

Gabi looked to her finger, surprised he had noticed; surprised she had left it there, on her finger when she had meant to take it off.

"Your ring," she amended knowingly, bringing his gaze round.

"You should go now. Before you get killed."

"Are you going to kill me?" She asked, knowing he wouldn't.

He blinked, his long lashes fluttering against his cheeks for a second before he looked back up at her.

"Don't look for me," he told her, right before he ran.

/

"I need you to tell me the whole story from beginning to end," Gabriella sat down in the chair opposite Trent's desk and waited patiently for him to begin.

It was a long story, it would seem. At least the way he told it. He kept going off on tangents and missing the important parts and she had to keep reminding him the reason for her questioning him this way.

This was _his _brother. He may have decided that Troy was the guilty party and that the past could not be undone, but to unlock the mystery, she had to know _everything._

"When did you and Jenna start seeing each other?" She looked up, pinning him with her squinted brown gaze.

Trent sighed, leaning back in his large office chair to delay his answer. "About a month after she met Troy."

Gabriella darted him a look. "She was only with Troy for six months before Derek came back…"

"I know."

"So you met through Troy?" She checked.

"Yeah…all three of us went out one night, must have been a couple of weeks after they met and he was telling me all about this amazing girl and I have to admit, I was suspicious. He'd known her a fortnight and he was talking crazy about her so I asked to meet her." He admitted. "Turned out he was right, she _was _amazing. Only Troy and I could never share. We always dated the same girl, played a game you know? Who does she like more? Which brother, which twin?"

Gabriella sucked in a breath to stop the words on her tongue. Had Trent deliberately made a play for Jenna to test her loyalty? To 'play the game'?

"I know, it sounds sick. I don't deny my intentions were off. But we fell in love, as you know." Trent added, slicing a look at her through half-open eyes.

"When did she give you that ring?" Gabriella asked, pointing her pen end to the ring sat on Trent's right hand.

"Look, they got engaged first, okay? About a month in. That's when we started having an affair. She told me she had only given him the ring so he wouldn't suspect us. But she gave me mine after he went inside. She told me I was the one she wanted to be with all along. That we could be together properly now…"

Gabriella looked up from her scribbling, uneasy with his suggestion.

"You think Jenna did this?" She wondered.

"No, no of course not," Trent quickened to deny, leaving Gabriella wondering. "As soon as Troy saw my ring the way he reacted gave me no doubt what he would be capable of, had he not had a dozen prison guards to hold him down," Trent twisted his neck.

"A dozen?" Gabriella questioned.

"He was like an animal, kicking, scratching…"

"He just found out his brother was getting married to the woman he loved…" She posed carefully.

"Yeah. And he just ripped a guy to pieced for bedding her, too," he reasoned.

"So how did you feel, about Jenna's affair? She was cheating on you as well, after all?"

"You know what? Call me soft, but I forgave her. I knew he was a part of her past and she was unhappy with Troy and unhappy that we couldn't be together. So the weekend she went home, something happened. I wasn't happy, don't get me wrong. But I wasn't jealous like Troy was. Because I knew she wanted to be with me. I knew it was just a mistake…"

Gabriella sighed again as she finished her notes. "Is there anyone else who could have wanted Derek dead?"

"Not as far as I know." Trent shrugged. "Look, the angle you're taking here I feel like you're questioning events, setting up an investigation. All you're meant to do is find him, not work out what happened."

"Do you not think I need to know what happened to find him?" She asked back, expertly deflecting his question.

"Honestly? No. I think you've tracked enough people on less information than you have here. Are you planning on re-opening the case?" He asked.

"Would it bother you if I did?"

"I can see why you might feel like you have to get to the bottom of the whole thing, Gabriella. You probably saw that picture of Troy and wonder how he could even murder anyone, right? But jealousy is an ugly emotion. It can drive anyone to do anything."

"Even murder?" She asked innocently.

"He told me he would kill me when he saw this ring," Trent boasted.

"Have you seen Troy since he escaped?" She asked finally, looking into his face.

"No."

She nodded, standing to go, reading her notes distractedly.

"Have you?" Trent asked back, bringing her gaze from her notebook to his cool blue eyes.

"Nope," she shook her head with a one sided lip curl, heading out of his office.

/

Lost property was a god-send.

Troy had managed to find at least three decent outfits in the box at the hospital and top of that, had snuck into the family room to afford a shower and proper hair-wash that he hadn't enjoyed since he couldn't remember when.

He used to have long hot showers after his gym work outs, sometimes he would share them with Jenna but mostly he loved the feeling of the water cascading his body, something that hadn't changed as he enjoyed his freedom in this protected building.

It was the first time since he had left jail that he felt at home. Somehow order and uniforms soothed him and he felt a sense of ritual here, another thing he missed about jail. 7am, breakfast, 10am, yard walk, 12pm, lunch. He was used to having his whole day mapped out for him, his movements restricted and his limbs chained.

He still wasn't quite used to roaming freely. Though in being here, he was risking being found quicker than he could snap his own fingers. They had CCTV here. And police. And he had been lucky to infiltrate the hospital without too much fuss, quickly choosing clothes to mask his identity.

He dried off from his shower and pulled on the camo pants and black vest, figuring he might pass for a visitor; his heavily muscled arms exposed through the sleeveless top as he lifted a hand and brushed fingers through his damp hair.

He needed a hair cut, but he couldn't risk anyone recognising his eyes, they were too much of a giveaway and unless he got hold of coloured contacts, he'd have to hide them for a little bit longer.

Jenna looked so serene, laying there sleeping. He wasn't hit with any of the emotions he expected to be hit with as he faced her unconscious body but he did feel sadness at losing her. He _had _loved her, a long time ago and although he didn't feel an ounce of that love anymore- or the anger he once did- he did miss her.

He missed the way she would grab him and wrestle him into bed in her fun, dominating way, or the way she would cuddle him around the middle and tell him she loved him.

He still couldn't understand what had happened to change that. Why had she fallen out of love with him? What had he done?

As he ran a gentle finger down a blonde curl, he knew he would never find out. He couldn't stick around long enough to find out if she would make it and he couldn't risk being in this town for longer than he already had. The place was crawling with police, and now investigators, too.

Only she hadn't called him in.

He frowned as he remembered the tiny Indian girl, all hair and eyes, wrapped up in his jacket. Why had she let him run like that? Why hadn't she dobbed him in yet?

He wondered whether her words were real, whether she did really want to prove his innocence because he couldn't imagine how she thought he might be. How had she come across the possibility he might not have committed the crime he was jailed for?

He would love to know.

But he couldn't find her, it was too dangerous. He would have to wait for her to come to him. And with no other real plan in his mind, he guessed staying one more day wouldn't hurt.

He just hoped her instincts found him before the cops did.

/

"She played them real good."

Gabriella looked across Jenna's bed at Sharpay, her missing best friend, now found, and lifted her brows at her honesty.

"Oh, you thought I wouldn't spill?" Sharpay smiled. "Well, I will."

"Thank you," Gabriella nodded, indicating she should go on.

"Well only because those two boys never knew what was coming to them. I know she's my friend but Troy was, too. We went to High School together and I didn't see him until Jenna and he got together but I was so happy to see him again."

"What was Troy like, in High School?" Gabriella wondered.

"Popular," Sharpay shrugged. "Sweet, nice guy. A jock, but you know, not an asshole about it…"

"How did you feel when he was arrested?"

"Shocked, I mean, this is Troy we're on about here. Not some _murderer_." Sharpay pulled a face.

"So, you don't think he did it?" Gabriella pressed.

Sharpay sighed. "I didn't think so at first. But then I saw what she did to them," the blonde girl tilted her head to her comatose friend. "She had them both wrapped around her little finger and I knew it would end in tears…"

"Why did she do it, then? Why did she date them both?"

"Her and Derek were _the _couple, you know? I think she saw Troy on TV and thought how exciting it would be to date a millionaire. She always did want the best. She wanted to be a princess, you know?"

Gabriella nodded in empathy, pressing her lips in. "Do you think she might have slept with Derek deliberately to make Troy jealous?"

"If Troy had found out that she was just with him for the money, then yeah," Sharpay agreed to this motive.

"What makes you think she was just with him for the money?" Gabriella asked.

"Pfft," Sharpay nearly laughed. "That was common knowledge. To everyone but Troy."

"Nobody ever told him?"

Sharpay's look at her told her that she had crossed the line as far as her questioning went. She was getting way too personal here.

"I told him." Sharpay relayed sadly. "But he didn't want to know. He had a ring on his finger by then and he was convinced she was for real."

"She's your best friend but you sound like-"

"Like I hate her?" Sharpay interrupted. "I just hate what she did to my friend."

"How do you feel about Trent?" Gabriella questioned next.

The blonde shrugged. "He has Troy's money. Why else do you think she went with him?"

Trent had Troy's money? Gabi pondered on this as she walked away from the hospital, new thoughts flooding her mind at every minute. Everyone had a different story, a different angle but everyone said the same- _Troy didn't kill Derek_.

No-one had provided a suitable alternative, save Trent who suggested maybe Jenna herself did the deed, but it was Troy who had been found with the blood on his hands. And it was Jenna who lay here, unconscious and full of answers. So if it had been her and she had set him up, how had she gone about it?

It didn't make sense. None of it made sense. Right now Gabriella felt like she might never find the answers as she wandered the streets outside the hospital and prayed upwards for help.

She heard the roar in her ears and closed her eyes, her vision clear and precise. She had to find Troy. He was calling for her, somewhere and she had to get to him. If only she knew where he was. She closed her eyes again, hoping for more help from her ancestors, hoping for a miracle.

She just _had_ to find him.


	6. Raid

**CHAPTER 5**

"I'm looking for Troy."

He heard her voice at the bottom of the stairs of the abandoned building, the place crawling with people like himself- hiding, in danger.

He knew they would let her pass, he had asked them to and as she came up, finding him on his dirty, flat mattress, he looked up and smiled. "You followed me, then."

Gabi blinked her brown eyes at him and twisted her lips, curling to sit on the mattress with him. "You knew I would."

"I let you find me." He added, pinning her with his direct blue gaze, showing her he was in charge here.

"You look different." Her gaze ran up and down him, her eyes lingering on the arms he exposed in his vest.

"I got a new outfit," he teased, licking his lips as he sat up a little, crossing his legs and leaning his elbows onto his knees letting his hair drop forward as he looked to his fingers, moulding a ship out of wood with his penknife.

"So why did you decide to be found?" She asked, frowning a little.

Troy watched the crease above her brow and urged to run his thumb there to iron it out, but he resisted, reminding himself of his pledge not to scare her.

"I need your help." He admitted.

"I know." She agreed.

"What do you know?" He asked.

She shrugged. "I've spoken to Trent and Sharpay and Ryan."

He smiled again, empty this time. "You know almost everything."

"Almost?"

"The night Derek died, I was drinking downtown. I don't know what happened; I just know I woke up in that yard out of town, covered in blood."

She didn't even blink at his admission and he wondered why she didn't fear him. "Do you remember leaving the bar?"

He shook his head. "Nope."

"It's possible you were drugged."

"They did tests. They didn't find anything." He assured.

"There are things that don't show up in police tests," she shared carefully, bringing his eyes to hers.

"Like what?"

"Like date-rape drugs. The bastards who do that sort of thing are finding ways to keep doing what they're doing without leaving a trace."

"That would knock me out?" He wondered and she nodded.

"And fuzz your memory."

He sighed, flipping his knife shut and holding his creation across to her. She looked at the tiny craft and then back to him, licking her lips as she felt them tingle with her curiosity to kiss him.

"It's beautiful," she offered, thumbing the toy with awe.

"Like you." He said, flicking his lashes up to reveal his dangerously glowing eyes.

Gabriella felt her breath hitch in her chest at his claim but the thundering of her heart wasn't from panic, it was from excitement and she wondered why he was having this effect on her. He was an escaped convict- a possible killer- and all she could think about was how his lips would feel against hers, against her skin even.

"Thank you," she swallowed, knowing his gaze was at the base of her throat where her pulse jumped erratically.

"You do know it's been two years since I had a woman?" He asked conversationally and she wondered why he was asking.

"Are you trying to scare me off?" She wondered, tilting her head.

Today her hair was loose, all pretty and touchable down her shoulders and she wasn't wearing her usual suit. She had chosen some softer black trousers and a pretty scoop neck top in bronze, the beading at the neckline gold and green to accentuate her mocha skin.

"No I'm trying to talk you into sleeping with me," he amended her previous observation.

Gabriella had never heard a man refer to 'having' a woman before. Troy's phrase had lit something inside her that she didn't want burning while she tried to solve his case and now things were getting entirely out of hand.

"Do you want my help or not?" She frowned, crossing her arms over her breasts where his gaze was burning through the thin material of her top.

"Depends what you mean by 'help'," He gleaned.

"If you want someone to sleep with, then go and find a hooker,_ no'ketanó__hetane __(selfish man)__,_" Gabriella rose from the mattress to go, finding her wrist imprisoned by warm, hardened fingers.

She looked down, shocked by the gentle hold he afforded on her and she waited for him to speak.

"I'm sorry."

It was only two words but the meaning behind them left her breathless as she stood there and took breaths in and out in steady rhythm.

"Can you think of anyone who would want to frame you for murder?" She asked finally, giving him another chance to save himself.

"Yeah," he lifted a brow. "My brother."

Gabi frowned; surprised by this accusation even though she knew the pair were enemies now and all because of one woman.

"STOP! POLICE!" A voice aided by a megaphone called out from below, jolting Troy into action.

"Shit!" He cursed, running to the door, then turning, quickly back to his saviour. "Meet me tonight. At midnight, you know where." He told her before he vanished and she stood, open mouthed at his escape as two officers came rushing in, roughly grasping her and forcing her to her knees, shouting at her to stay down.

"Hey! Hey!" She called, glaring up at the pair. "I'm a PI you idiots!"

"Well, well…" A familiar voice sounded at the door and Gabriella looked up, wondering where she knew it from. "If it isn't Gabriella Montez."

"Chad," Gabriella acknowledged, hating the smug smile on his face as he found her in this position, grounded by his officers.

"Let her up, men." He told the pair. "Treat a lady with respect," he added, coming into the room as the officers left and she patted her dusty knees down.

"Thank you," she told him with fluster, annoyed at being manhandled like that.

"What are you doing here, Gabi?" He asked, using her nickname that she only let a few people use. He wasn't one of them.

"Looking for Troy. I thought that was obvious." She smiled wanly arching her brow.

He smiled patiently back. "Did you find what you were looking for?" His gaze flicked over the empty bed and the signs of life left behind- an empty coke can, a small oil lamp beside it.

"No," she smarted. "Someone pulled a raid before I even made it in here and then when I did step inside, I got shoved to the floor by the animals you call your police force."

"Well, I'm sorry you got caught up in it," Chad apologised. "I hope you're okay now. You know, we're both on the same side, Gabi. We both want to find Troy."

_But not for the same reason, _she mused. She didn't believe for one second they were on the same side which is why she wanted the Super Intendant job so badly. So she could fire Chad's bent ass and employ a decent Head of Police.

"Of course," she smiled fakely, nodding her head once before she went to go by him.

"Oh, you dropped something," he told her, picking up a folded piece of paper and handing it to her.

"My shopping list," she told him, tucking it into her pocket even though they both knew it was nothing of the sort.

"Have fun at the mall," he called as she made her way down the stairs, her teeth gritted at his tone.

As soon as she was free she opened the paper, her eyes feasting on the verse there, her hand shaking with the monumentality of holding this poem

_The Night_

_Shelter me from the storm and rain and the darkness that chills my bones_

_Protect me from the shadows and demons that stalk me by moonlight_

_Can anyone tell the way to go home?_

_I don't want to be out here alone at midnight._

_The crawling and itching and fear burns my insides_

_My eyes in the black night cannot see through the dark disguise_

_Can anyone help me, can you be my guide?_

_I'm afraid of what happens when the shadows do rise_

He was so, so frightened and yet when she had looked into those eyes, she held felt nothing but comfort. She had felt protected. And she knew that someone who made her feel those things wasn't someone who could have killed a man, no matter what he might have threatened.

So was he right? Was Trent behind the whole thing?

She swallowed, hoping not and then wondering how the hell she was going to find out the truth.

/

"I hear you found Troy." Trent's words were instant as she walked into the office, her mind still processing all her new findings.

"Almost." She complied.

"Chad said he was there." Trent squinted, standing to come toward her, his hands loosely in his pockets.

"He might have been. But I didn't see him." She lied.

"You're close, though." He pushed.

"Yeah," she nodded. "Really close."

"Good." He nodded too and she looked up to him, intrigued.

"Why, what's up?"

"Jenna's awake." He told her, swallowing. "I'm worried he might try and see her and put her under more stress."

"She's awake?" Gabriella repeated. "When?"

"At eleven this morning. I went in to see her but she needs rest," he sighed.

Gabriella nodded. "I'll get them to contact me when she's up to answering questions."

Trent squinted. "What do you want to ask her?"

"About what happened. I want her side of the story," Gabriella smiled bemusedly.

"But you found him, almost. You don't need her story now." Trent frowned.

Gabriella twisted her lips and met his eyes once more. "Actually I do. I want to re-open the case, like you said."

Trent remained strangely still for a moment, his eyes fixed on her with calculating focus.

"Why?" He asked eventually.

"Because I don't think Troy did it. And I think that's why he broke out of jail." She walked through the office to her desk, calmly putting her bag down and creating an air of indifference as she secretly tracked Trent's movement behind her and he followed her though to her office.

"Who do you think did it?" He asked with interest.

"I don't know yet," she conceded. "But there are other suspects in the frame and I want to investigate that avenue further."

"You mean me," Trent laughed, tipping his head back with a roll of his eyes.

"And Jenna," she tilted her head, testing his reaction. His eyes went cold and he sobered.

"You were right all along," he pressed his lips together and she lifted her head to ask 'why?' silently. "You shouldn't have taken this case."

With that he turned and walked away, leaving her frowning. Was that a threat she wondered? Or an advisory?

Either way, she had work to do and she had to do it fast, before Trent could cover any more tracks than he already had.

/

"_Nóveohtsé-mo_."

She was wearing a big, thick black long jacket that almost swallowed her whole and her hair was ponytailed high and cascading down her back. She had on a scarf, gloves and heeled boots that curved around her ankles, lending way to her skin-tight jeans. Her eyes were dark with make up, her ears decorated with gold hoops and for a second, he paused, drinking in her beauty.

"What does that mean?" He asked, swallowing hard against his attraction to her.

"You're late," she translated.

"Yeah," he nodded, his hands jammed into his leather bomber jacket pockets, his breath smokey. "I don't have a watch."

She squinted at him and then ran across to the pipe, their favourite hiding place where she disappeared inside, then pulled out a lantern from the inner pocket of her coat, lighting the oiled thread before placing the thing down, looking to Troy over her shoulder.

"I heard you don't like the dark."

He gritted his teeth and silenced her with his stare, his hard eyes angry at her but she didn't know why.

"You've read my poems," he accused.

"You leave them lying around…what was I meant to do?" She wondered.

"Rip them up? Burn them?" He suggested, gravitating towards the light and ending up by her side. "They don't mean anything."

"I can help you, Troy."

He laughed bitterly. "You actually think you can, too," he mused. "That's cute."

"You have to tell me why you think Trent is involved in this mess," she begged.

"You should know. You work with the guy." He looked down on her, holding her brown eyes for longer than necessary.

"He's either a very good liar or you are because he won't give an inch." She explained.

"Do you think I'm lying?" He turned and challenged her.

"No," she jutted her chin up to try and match his height.

"Then you think he is?" He checked.

She twisted her lips. "There's something he's not telling me."

"Look, he preyed on Jenna when she was vulnerable. Not only had she lost me but she had lost Derek, too. I know she loved Derek once. I know she fell back in love with him and although it killed me to know it; I kind of understood. But him? My _brother_? I never understood that. All I knew was she was crying when I was taken away and then the next thing, he's coming in with the exact same ring as me…it's like he wanted to _be _me or something…I don't get it…"

"Troy," Gabi reached out and touched his arm, against the hard muscle of his bicep where she blinked lazily to cast away the warm rush that filled her veins. "Tell me why you think he murdered Derek."

His eyes flicked between both of hers and he gazed upon her pouted lips, fighting his every urge to kiss her as her brown eyes focused on his concernedly. Her small hand right there on his bicep, her body so close to his. God, but he could picture her wrapped in his arms, drowned by his kiss in an entirely different place or time. But right now, that would never happen and his face creased with the pain of knowing it.

"He wanted me out of the picture." He said simply, revealing his motive to the one person who might be able to help.

"He wanted Jenna to himself…" Gabriella agreed, looking up, shocked at the obvious motive she had entirely missed. Trent had managed to sway her good and proper, she mused.

"Did you get the transcripts for the interviews the police did on the case?" Troy wondered.

"Not yet. I've asked for them to be called."

Troy smiled cynically. "Is Danforth still there?"

"Yeah, he was heading the raid…" She shared.

"Then you won't get the real interviews. In fact, I doubt any even took place. With him and my brother in cohorts, I don't think either of them were gonna let any other scenario happen than that of me going to jail for a crime I didn't commit."

"Troy are you saying that Chad helped Trent cover this up?" Gabi looked up, rocked by this idea even though she didn't trust Chad herself.

"How do you and Chad get along?" He checked before he divulged further.

"Like cat and dog," she derided and he chuckled.

"About as well as he and I do, then."

"As soon as Trent told him I was going to be his partner, he made it his objective to belittle me…" She explained. "I've never let him prove himself right in his misgivings, though," she smiled triumphantly.

"But how in the hell are you gonna take him down, Gabriella?" Troy wondered and she was surprised to hear him use her name. She didn't remember telling him her name. "He'll have covered his tracks too damn well."

"I haven't worked that out yet," she admitted. "But Jenna's awake. I'm sure she can give me something."

"Jenna's awake?" Troy sucked in a breath, shocked at the news.

"Yeah. And be careful. Trent knows you want to see her." She added.

"I need to know what she did with my money." He sighed, running his fingers through his long fringe to drag it back across his head, leaving his face bare for Gabriella to admire in the lamplight. He was handsome, she had to admit. His strong features and even stronger body were compelling her to be closer to him but she was resisting her every urge thus far. His jaw was strong and stubbled with days of growth and his cheeks were high and angled, his soft mouth and lashes clashing against his manly face.

It wasn't right that she get involved with the very man she was trying to help and it definitely wasn't right that she should feel this way. She was work-minded, caught up in her world of mystery and she had no time to think about romance, or love. And she definitely didn't think about sex.

But the blue eyes and gentle mouth of the man beside her had caught her whim and she didn't know what to do about it. They could both be in very sharp danger as they unravelled the truth behind the murder of Derek Hoffman and with her working beside the very man who may have actually done it; she had to keep her senses clear.

Why then could she not stop staring into those blue, blue eyes? Why was she eyeing his mouth with the hunger she felt deep inside to taste him? Why did she want to throw off her coat and press into his warm body, using only him as her protection and forgetting about all and everything else?

The rough pad of his thumb traced down her cheek as they looked at each other in continuing silence, intrigued and curious, two hearts beating hard with unknowing excitement.

He smiled, so slightly she might have missed it had she not been staring so intently at him. "I'm sorry about my hands," he husked, feeling the abrasion of his palm against the impossible smoothness of her face.

She lifted her hand, grasping his with it, bringing it down and touching the inside of his palm with her fingers as her face pointed upward, still searching for answers in his face.

"They're rough, like sandpaper," she frowned just so, just enough to make him touch her face with his other hand, his free one not captured by hers.

He breathed, wanting words, not finding any until he bent closer, her pupils dilating as he came close.

"How do you taste, Gabriella?" He whispered, blinking as she lifted her mouth to his to answer his question and he hitched a breath at her offering, his heart leaping with joy at her gesture.

Before he could lower his mouth and complete his quest, a crack of a party banger sounded outside, echoing in the small space they consumed, breaking them apart. He looked to her, bewildered by the spell she cast over him, his hands shaking with his need to touch her.

"Who are you?" He wondered, images of her flashing across his eyes, naked, writhing, begging for him to fill her.

Gabi stood with her mouth agape, realising she had projected her intimate fantasies into his mind as she had stared into his eyes and she cursed herself for allowing her guard to drop. She closed her eyes and shook her head, ridding the images she had had in that moment, of them- together- naked and about to mate. She shouldn't even be thinking like that herself, let alone dropping her perfectly placed mask to allow her thoughts into someone else's head.

Those things were only supposed to happen with the man she gave herself to, wholly and completely and she didn't see how nearly kissing Troy came anywhere close to giving herself to him.

He was staring at her, still questioning her as she fought for steady ground, staggering back to press her hands to the wall of the pipe.

"I'm sorry." She attempted, not sure what she was apologising for.

"I do not know what just happened there," he frowned, shaking his head dazedly, trying to work it out.

"It's…" She winced; loathe to share this with him.

"It's what?" He demanded, his voice rough, his body tensed with coiled power.

"Look, it doesn't matter, I have to go…" She flustered, looking either side of her for escape.

"Wait…" he grasped her arm gently, bringing her round where she strived to get as far away from him as possible. As far away from those eyes and their mesmerising spell, she amended. "Take the lamp," he instructed.

She met his eyes and flicked hers between them. "No, keep it," she insisted.

While he had her captured, he licked his lips and sighed. "When will I see you?"

"I'll come tomorrow, after I see Jenna." She promised.

He nodded and dropped her arm, pressing his lips together as if he wanted to say more, but he didn't speak again so she headed out, her mind dazed by what had happened in that tunnel.

She should never have let him that close…she should never have let her passion rise like that. She hadn't even known the strength of her legacy until that moment, when his eyes had shone with the undoubted desire she herself felt and in that moment she had _known _her thoughts had been imprinted to his.

She rolled her eyes upwards and prayed to her gods, _please don't let me do that again. _

She couldn't afford to slip, not for one second. Not if she wanted to stay alive and keep Troy alive, too.


	7. The Money

Lmaoxlovee- thankyou. I am not sure how the summary should sound, lol xx Any ideas?

Thanks for the reviews my people, I love you all :D

**CHAPTER 6**

"Hi Jenna," Gabriella smiled at the young woman sat up in bed, her face pale and her eyes glassy. "I'm Gabriella Montez, I'm a Private Investigator," she introduced calmly.

"I know who you are." Jenna told her with a voice that was firmer than Gabriella expected. Gabriella met her eyes and lifted her brows, asking how she knew this. Jenna chose not to elaborate so she plodded on.

"Then you might also know that I'm looking for Troy Bolton. And that his escape from jail could be related to your past with him." She added knowingly.

"Troy and I split up a long time ago." She stated.

"But you were the authorised Power of Attorney for his accounts while he was in prison." Gabriella announced.

"Well, he was wrong to trust me because the money is gone." Jenna supplied, flopping her head to one side, away from Gabriella.

Gabriella licked her lips and blinked. "Did you spend the money, Jenna?"

"Every last cent of it." Jenna confirmed.

"Could you tell me what you bought with it please?"

"My baby." Jenna looked at her directly, laying her hand on her swollen belly as tears came to her eyes. "The baby I might lose."

Gabriella's face creased in concern for the young woman's welfare and she placed a hand to her arm soothingly, changing her tack.

"It was an artificial insemination?" She checked and Jenna nodded, becoming upset.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. I hope you and the baby recover fully," she added with sorrow.

"I know what you're thinking," Jenna began, wiping her eyes. "You think I just used him for his money but that's not true. I loved him. I-"

"Hello, honey," Trent's voice cut in just as Gabriella hope to receive a huge piece in the puzzle to fill the hole that remained.

"Trent, if you could wait outside in the family room until I'm done, please," Gabriella looked at him pointedly.

"Oh, of course, I'm sorry…"

Gabriella looked back to the bed and knew her interviewee would not be willing to share much now.

"Jenna," Gabi tilted her head and sighed. "Do you really think Troy killed Derek?"

Jenna looked at her with a sad smile and shook her head, unable to speak the words but Gabriella accepted her denial in any form, a relieved sigh leaving her lungs at her action.

"Do you know who did?" She asked bravely, closing her eyes in regret as Jenna relaxed back into unconsciousness, clearly tired from all the questioning.

As she stood to go, a frown marring her face, Gabriella worried that she would never get the answers she wanted while Trent and Chad continued to cover for each other and she still hadn't worked out how she was going to get to the bottom of that but she had to start somewhere.

And County Police Quarters seemed like as good a place to start as any.

/

"I missed you, Wildcat," Sharpay hugged onto Troy's neck and smiled a teary smile over his shoulder, their meeting place hidden from watchful eyes.

"I missed you too." He shared, pulling back and squinting at her.

"I'm glad you got out ok." She added.

"Thanks for everything, Shar. I'd still be in there without your help." He admitted.

"Well you didn't deserve to be in there," she counteracted. "What you gonna do now?"

"You met Gabriella, right?" He checked and she nodded. "She's helping me."

Sharpay frowned and pursed her lips worriedly. "Does she know what she's up against?"

"She works with my brother, she ought to," he lifted his brows.

"Look out for her, Troy. She's feisty and clever but she needs someone to watch her back."

"I'll watch her," he promised huskily.

"So why are we meeting, what's this about?" Sharpay asked knowingly.

"I need more people, Shar. I need to find who was there the night I got drunk, who saw me leave…I have to piece together what happened…"

"I thought that was Gabriella's job?" His friend arched her brow.

"She's working alone. She's searching the police records, she can get all the official paperwork but I need someone on the street. If we're really going to make this case work then I need you to help me." He begged.

"You know I will. Anything you need." She assured.

"Good. Because they don't know about you yet so you're safe for a while." He assured.

"Never let it be said that Sharpay Evans isn't helpful," she smiled teasingly, leaving once she had been given her brief.

All he had to do now was get to Jenna again and find out just what in the hell was going on with his stolen money.

He found another outfit, another disguise as he slipped on a beanie and a hoodie and ventured into the hospital with apparent disregard. Making his way to her room, he quickly flattened against the wall at the sound of voices- one that wasn't Jenna's but as he listened carefully, he recognised it as his brother's.

"You're just confused honey; it's the meds they're giving you…" Trent soothed his fiancée.

"I don't understand how I got here or why I need medication," Jenna argued. "I did everything you told me- I took the pills, we did the injections and then bam, I'm waking up in hospital."

"The pregnancy picked up your heart murmur, sweetie, remember the doctors told you?" He said condescendingly and Troy curled his lip at his tone.

"But it was your idea to get pregnant in the first place," Jenna accused, her voice hardening. "You're the one who wanted this baby!"

"Now honey, you wanted us to have a baby together too, remember?" Trent chided.

"I already have a child!" Jenna threw back. "Where is she anyway? Where's my angel?"

_Jenna had a kid?_ Troy frowned at that, surprised. Was it Trent's child? That didn't make sense if she'd been injected to produce her second. That would suggest Trent couldn't produce his own children and that they'd had to use other means. Then maybe they had done this once already? But why would his brother go to all that trouble- and seemingly coerce Jenna into having another baby she didn't really want? Maybe it was Derek's…

"She's at home, with the babysitter. She'll visit when you're better…" Trent continued his soft tones.

"I want to see her, Trent." Jenna demanded.

"Now, just relax, honey. The doctor said you have to stay calm, okay?"

"How can I stay calm when I don't even know what's happening to me!" Jenna called out, exasperated.

Troy frowned again as it went quiet and he edged along the wall to peek inside the room. The blinds were half closed but he could see Trent near to the bed, speaking into Jenna's ear, his words too quiet to decipher.

_Just what was he saying?_ Troy wondered. What was he saying that needed him to be so close and so threatening to the woman they had both loved?

He slipped back into an empty room while he waited for his brother to leave. Once he was happy the scene was clear, he ventured back out, looking either side of the corridor before he advanced.

He flicked a quick look into the blinds to see that Jenna was now resting with her eyes closed and he twisted his lips, hoping she might talk to him. He slipped inside her room, casting a look over her restful form before he spoke.

"Hey pretty girl," his voice was torn and his emotions cold but she stirred at the sound of his voice.

"Troy?" She lifted her head weakly, then plopped it back down.

"Trent said the money is gone." He announced with no pleasantries.

"He made me spend it, Troy He made me get treatment so we could have a baby…"

"Nobody makes you do something like that," Troy argued.

"You don't know him…"

His brows drew together, wondering if there was a lot he was missing in this picture.

"Why my money, Jen? Why not use his own?" He begged.

"He was always jealous of us, Troy…he always wanted to better than you, to beat you…"

"We were brothers. It's what brothers do," Troy argued.

"No, it was more than that. He made me leave you, Troy. He made me buy the same ring and he wouldn't let me visit you…Did you get my letter?" She asked finally, hopefully.

"What letter?" He squinted.

"I sent it two weeks ago…I thought that's why you came…"

Troy screwed up his face as the confusing thoughts it him all at once. _Just what in the heck was going on?_

"What did it say?" He asked, intrigued by her belief the content had been enough to make him want to break out from jail.

"I-" She took a gasping breath as her monitor missed a heartbeat and then the machinery bleeped a warning, shocking Troy from his stance. He quickly left the room and scooted down the corridor, watching over his shoulder as several nurses and doctors ran into the room and he silently prayed upwards.

_Don't leave me now, Jen. I need you more than you know._

/

"Is Jenna okay?"

Gabriella carried forward the brown sack of hot KFC chicken as Troy barked the question at her from inside the tube that had become his home.

"She's back on ventilation but she's alive." Gabriella supplied, handing him the bag of food which he accepted gratefully, his blue eyes unveiled once more as he had cast his fringe back, seemingly comfortable to do so in her company. His unshaven stubble was getting long and she frowned at the near-beard he wore.

"I went to see her today." He added, scoffing the food like a man who hadn't eaten in a real long time and she watched, almost amused by his style. He seemed to sense her stare because he turned, mouth full and chewing and smiled tightly as he finished before speaking. "Sorry."

"No, it's okay. You must be starving." She allowed. He flicked his eyes down her and his lips curled with an entirely different hunger and she frowned as her insides turned over at the look in his wolfish eyes.

"She told me she spent the money on getting pregnant. Seems my brother can't shoot his own arrows," he lifted a brow, making her smile as she relaxed back into the wall.

"She told me the same." She admitted.

"But the reason he used my money is what's important here. He wanted to outdo me on every level. Take my girl, my money, my whole life away from me…" Troy frowned.

"Did you two always have this rivalry?" Gabriella wondered.

"You don't have any brothers or sisters?" He asked back and she shook her head sadly.

"Well, Gabriella, for guys it's a different ball game," he shared, lifting his brows as he spoke. "We just can't let the other guy win. And you know, you get to thirty and you hope it might end- especially when your best friend in the world is happy-but it doesn't always work like that…"

"You can call me Gabi, you know," she told him randomly, making him smile.

"Okay, Gabi," he tested the sound of it.

"Then why did Jenna leave you for Derek only to leave Derek for Trent?" Gabi wondered.

"She told me tonight that he had made her leave me and buy the same ring and even made her try for a baby…I think my brother is threatening her somehow, I just don't know how…"

"Troy, we need her to testify. She's your only hope," Gabi looked up to him beside her, her eyes so earnest that he felt his overwhelming urge to kiss her all over again rise up in his chest.

"Why do you want this so much?" He squinted, twisting to meet her gaze, square on.

She licked her lips and dropped her eyes, faltering for time, trying to find a reasonable answer and he traced the path of her tongue on her lower lip as she did so.

"You don't deserve to be punished for something you didn't do." She managed.

He blinked. "You read my file notes," he gathered.

"I know you were beaten in there Troy." She agreed.

"You think your friend Chad might have been behind that?" He asked lightly. "Instructed by my brother, no doubt…"

"I'm so sorry…" She whispered, surprising him by kneeling to throw her arms around his neck, something he never expected her to do. It had been a long time since he had a hug, let alone from a willing female. A beautiful willing female at that.

"Can I hug you back or is that against the rules?" He enquired drily, slowly running his arms around her body with tense experiment, before he finally sighed and closed his eyes, breathing in the smell of her hair.

"I'm going to solve this case, Troy," she knelt back, touching her hand to his fringe to train it from his forehead, letting her fingers run through the newly washed strands as she continued her gentle caress.

"I wish you would kiss me first," he husked.

Her eyes darted to his where she had been staring at his mouth and as she o'd her lips at his comment, he found himself smiling at the opportune moment to take her mouth.

He nuzzled his nose to hers; their eyes impossibly close as he smiled at her.

"_Emo'onahe_." He whispered, right before he captured her mouth and sank into the whirling bliss of kissing her, their mouths mating with slow, urgent need as their bodies pressed closer, trying to touch.

"Umph," she whimpered, falling against him as he rocked back, trying to unfold his legs and bring her between his thighs, only resulting in over balancing them both; but when they fell, she touched her mouth to his again and carried on kissing him like they had never stopped, her hands crawling into his hair and pulling him closer just as he wrapped his arms tight around her and ventured his tongue into the sweetness of her mouth.

"Oh, _ma'heo'o_ _(god)_," She pulled away, her eyes bright and alive with her desire, her breaths short and captured. His stubble had burned her skin and she stared at him as her skin buzzed with the sensation if it, sore and sweet all at once.

"You speak Cheyenne, too, huh?" He panted with a twinkled smile, sitting up as she crawled back from his body, touching her lower lip and staring at him shock.

"_Epeoto (I hate you)_," she glared at him, lifting her chin.

"I only said you were beautiful," he defended, wiping his muddied hands together to brush off the mess, smiling at her as she composed herself and avoided his gaze.

"You're just looking for someone to be with after two years of having no-one," she accused him quietly, shifting back against the wall and he watched her with a frown, leaning on his bent knee.

"Have you ever been appreciated by a guy, Gabi?" He asked, amused and she looked at him, silently burning him with her angry gaze. "I guessed not," he nodded at her look.

"What does that mean, anyway?" She growled back, still buzzing with need and annoyed at herself for stopping their heated kiss. Her stupid conscience had kicked in and sometimes she hated that she was so…proper.

"It means you're a beautiful woman and my god, you should know it," he explained, looking at her with dark-edged eyes that spoke of his attraction.

"And that means I should sleep with you? And forget all about my traditions?" She wondered.

He smiled a curly smile at her that revealed his dimple and had her struggling for breath, her tummy lolloping at the sight of it. "It means that when I kiss you, it's not just a kiss. It's me showing you how much I appreciate you, how sexy you are to me," he explained, making her frown with unease.

Why did everything he said sound like her own tribal speakings? It was clear he knew her language so was he trying to confuse her, trap her somehow? She couldn't work out why his last words to her swirled deep into her belly and plunged lower, between her thighs; bringing a throb there she hadn't felt before.

_How sexy you are to me_.

What did he know about Cheyenne anyway? He was a white man from New York City with no connections to her deeper, beloved history. How dare he come out here and play her own tribe's traditions against her.

"What do you know about Cheyenne, anyway?" She asked the question she had just asked herself silently.

He pursed his lips, dropping his gaze to the floor where she flicked up her eyes and silently appreciated the curl of his lashes.

"You think I didn't do my homework on you?" He asked as he looked back up.

"You went to the extreme and learned my language?" She challenged, feeling defensive now. Just how much _did _he know?

His smile was still there, still teasing her and she was bemused at his sudden joy. Here was a man, on the run from the law, nothing to live for pretty much and he was smiling at her like she were his favourite play thing.

"I learned a few words." He shrugged. "Sue me."

She watched as he came up next to her, leaning his head back on the concrete wall, his sigh unmistakeable. "I'm sorry."

She softened at his apology, thinking how sweet it was that he had gone to all that effort to learn words of her native tongue- and not any old words, but words to tell her he thought she was beautiful.

Maybe deep down she had thought he still loved Jenna and that if Trent weren't in the picture, he might make a life with her again, and the knowledge that he found her sexy was a little more than unsettling.

It might have been bearable if it was _just _a kiss, just a physical reaction, but then he had told her his kisses weren't only kisses and that his mindset was like that of her own kind. That blew her away.

But what was this? They barely knew each other, they only met in this dark, wet hiding place and he was a wanted man. How could they ever have what they really wanted?

Gabriella hadn't taken a partner for the simple reason she hadn't felt ready to share herself in that way and when she did, she promised herself she would give her whole heart. Only now, having just the brink of possibility with the guy next to her, she didn't see how that would work. Real life just did not work the way her ancestors once lived by. She couldn't commit herself to the first man she felt connected with. It just wasn't practical.

And so she had to wipe every thought from her mind about the sexy, brooding male beside her and force herself to think only about business. The reason she was here at all. To save his ass.

"I'm going to call a friend I have at the White House. I'm going to get your file re-opened and an independent review of the police report," Gabi began, ignoring his bemused look at her for her switch of subject. She wriggled from her seat and launched up, looking down on him. "Talk to Jenna when she's awake. Get her to agree to testify. We're going to take them down, Troy, I promise."


	8. Case Closed

Thank you for reviews!

Love to Whirlerflake- did you update yet?

**CHAPTER 7**

"The case is closed." Trent told Gabi as she settled at her desk the next day, a new objective in her mind. She wasn't running around in circles anymore, she was working from the top backwards.

"Which case?" Gabi looked up, unsuspecting.

"Troy's case," Trent smiled amusedly at her for not guessing. "The Super Intendant withdrew the funding for a private investigation."

"But why?" Gabi squinted, not trusting her partner's words.

"He thought the same as you. We're both too close to it." Trent explained.

Gabi nodded thoughtfully. "Okay, so they're just using police and posters to find him?" She checked.

"They dialled it back. They figure he can't leave the state without being noticed at border control and even if he does, someone will recognise him."

"I thought he was a threat," she smiled at him pointedly.

"Only to me," Trent lifted his brows. "I guess he didn't tell you he threatened me in my own home?" He added to bait her.

"How could he tell me anything, I haven't seen him?" Gabi reminded him.

Trent slid a photograph across the table, one of her in the room of the warehouse where Troy had been squatting. In the grainy image, you could make out Troy's dash toward the door.

"What does this prove?" She told him, keeping her cool.

"You lied, Gabi. You said he had left before you even got there." Trent accused knowingly.

"That was just some drugged up hoodie with a secret to hide," she denounced, knowing he- or Chad- couldn't prove otherwise. "Why would I need to lie to you, Trent?" She asked curiously.

"Look, whatever, Gabriella. The case is closed. We have another file to look into now."

"Actually, I'm going to stay on the Bolton case," she smiled wanly and stood. "I'm going to work for free seeing as the Super Intendant has withdrawn funding."

"Why would you do that?" Trent asked suspiciously.

"Because I know I can prove he didn't murder Derek Hoffman," she replied confidently, playing a dangerous game of poker-face.

"I'm asking you to stop now, Gabriella," Trent warned as she rose and met him at the edge of her desk.

"Or what, Trent?" She asked back, unafraid.

He flicked his eyes between hers, the sweat beading on his upper lip in his nervousness and she knew she had him on the run now.

"Or nothing, of course, nothing," He quickly backtracked and she smiled knowingly, heading by him and out of the office once more.

/

"I can't do it without you," Troy told the unconscious woman in the hospital bed, willing her to wake. "I need you to vouch for me. I need your word."

"Visiting times are over, young man," the nurse clipped behind him and he sucked in a breath, so close to being caught unawares.

"I'm sorry," he husked apologetically as he headed out, looking over his shoulder once before he left.

"You're Troy aren't you?" The nurse asked, just before he went.

He froze, panicked, afraid she knew everything and wondering what she would do with that knowledge. "No, I'm Trent. People always mix us up," he smiled.

The nurse twisted her lips and went into the small white cupboard at the side of the bed. "She left this for you," She handed him the packet and he looked at it with confusion. "She told me 'just in case' she didn't make it."

He shot his eyes to the woman's and took a breath. "Is she going to die?"

The nurse paused and then nodded slowly. "It's a matter of time, now."

Troy closed his eyes and swallowed with the knowledge of that, pained by the inevitable outcome of Jenna's illness.

"Look after her." He begged with squinted eyes, about to ask her not to dob him in, then changing his mind as he turned to go.

"You're the good brother, Troy." She told him and he turned, eyes wide at her statement, not knowing where it came from, but appreciating it all the same. _How did she know?_ He wondered silently to himself as he left the hospital once more. _Just how much had Jenna shared?_

/

Trent's threat stayed with Gabi all the while she beavered away, leaving nothing unturned.

She was so close now she could taste the victory on her tongue and she knew it from Trent's reaction alone. She had never stayed on a case before- never fought back but this time, she had. This time, it felt like it was worth it.

And she hated that she felt that way, but as much as she tried to fight it, she couldn't ignore the growing attraction between her and her client. Her bounty even. She smiled softly to herself at the thought of _really _catching him and having uninterrupted, unmeasured time with him, to kiss him some more like they had earlier.

Jesus, but his kisses were amazing. And she had never spoken Cheyenne to anyone before, other than her tribe- it was just too awkward, too cheesy. And there he was, learning her words, speaking her language in so many ways that he couldn't possibly know.

Or could he?

She didn't even consider his motives, the fact he might be playing her; there were too many voices screaming in her head that this was right, this was real. And she didn't know what _this _was yet, but she dangerously wanted to find out. It didn't matter how much she tried to deny it; the feelings were there and they were not going away.

But right now, she had work to do. Witnesses to protect. Troy to worry about. The burning fire of need in the pit of her stomach would have to wait because she couldn't give in no matter how much she wanted it.

All she did know was that if she ever saw him again, she wouldn't pretend this time, she would show him that she cared. Because she did. She had from day one of being on this case and that wasn't going to change.

No matter what Trent threatened.

She sighed, typing her reports with serious focus, determined to get this case ready for her contact and present a fair re-trial. It was all she had left to hold onto.

It was all she had that might save him.

/

He couldn't help worrying about her.

He barely knew her, hardly had a chance to kiss her and yet he was sitting there in his dark home, his mind wandering to the girl with the darker-than night-hair and the softer than soft lips.

He would have given anything to extend that moment and kiss her for longer, but she had broken away, her conscience kicking in no doubt.

He smirked at that, somehow grateful she had one. It made him feel like he might mean something to her. Like that kiss wasn't _just _a kiss and maybe more could happen. But damn, what was he thinking? He was a criminal on the run and he had nowhere to hide. Someone like Gabi- anyone- would not want to be with him and have that on their back, too. They might share the most amazing chemistry but that's as far as it went and he would do well to remind himself that's as far as it would ever go.

He still had to check in with Sharpay, find new leads- prove his innocence. He might not even be courting that idea if it weren't for the tiny Indian but now it seemed like a real possibility- anything seemed possible when he looked into her wide brown eyes.

He sighed, knocking his head back, grizzling as he hit it on the wall accidentally, a frustrated snarl shaping his mouth.

"Damn!" He sighed again, rubbing his hands over his face as he realised with sudden hopelessness that he would never have his freedom and he would never have Gabi. There were too many things standing in the way- too much hidden by his brother and Chad and too much against him to allow him to live a happy life.

Once upon a time he had thought he had it all- and he had, almost. And then life had gone and brought him down to rock bottom- a lesson he took harshly and never forgot. He couldn't hope for too much- he didn't deserve it.

He shuffled down, curling into a sleeping position and wadded his rough jacket under his head for a pillow. The nights were so cold here- so dark. He couldn't see much at all apart from what was shadowed by the light of the moon.

Would she come to him tonight he wondered? Or would she stay away; put off by his advances? He wanted to see her, his body hummed with the anticipation of it but he knew he had to wait. He had to wait and forget his idiotic ideas about dating a girl like Gabriella Montez. He wasn't the good twin. The nurse was wrong about that.

/

"I need a favour."

Gabi had known Rupert Longwald for as long as she could remember. They had gone to Uni together, taken their Law Degrees, graduated and partied.

But they'd never kissed.

He was her go-to guy. The one she called if a date went sour, the one she asked for advice almost every day. And he was the one she could rely on in her hour of need. Rupert had done well for himself earning him a place as Chief Law Advisor to the President no less and she had been so proud of him the day he got the job.

"Sure, what's up?" Rupert replied with his usual easy manner.

"I have a case that need re-opening. There's risk, though. I think the SuperIntendant covered up vital evidence and framed a man for murder. There's heat," she warned of the volatile situation.

"Gabi, are you sure you should be touching this?" Rupert asked with his brotherly concern, his frown evident in his voice.

"There's nobody else. I'm in too deep to get out now." She explained. "But I need you. Without this going to the top, I can't guarantee my work is even worth it. Can you help me?"

Her voice was strained, her eyes wet with emotional tears that she shouldn't be shedding. This was _business_, nothing more. Then why did she feel like she might die if he said no?

"You know I will." Rupert offered quickly. "You sound frightened, though. Are you ok?"

She sighed. "I'm fine. I just don't know what to expect from these guys. Be prepared for anything tomorrow." She added knowingly.

"Hey, they don't have guns do they?" Rupert worried.

"I don't think so…god, I hope not." Another sigh left her lips.

"Look, I'll be there- whatever the time and place, just name it. I'm good, Gabi." Rupert assured.

"Thank you. I owe you one."

/

"I owe you one," Troy sank his teeth into the huge beef burger, wrapped either side with bread bun and filled with salad and relish- a taste he hadn't enjoyed in too long.

"I guess this is dinner…" Gabi commented thoughtfully, unwrapping her own food to sit in the dingy pipe with her charge.

"Man, I suck at dates," he teased back, flicking his alighted eyes to her as he smiled and chewed simultaneously.

She smiled at him patiently, wondering what a _real _date would be like. Would it be like this, eating burgers and feeling comfortable together? Or would it be tense and awkward?

"I spoke to my contact yesterday. He's in," she told him, keen to change the subject.

Troy looked to her and swallowed his mouthful, his eyes tempering. "Thank you."

"I have to get the file ready- we can't take any chances now. Every minute counts."

Her words scared him at the same time they filled him with excitement. Their minutes were counted, their time measured and every second with her felt so much more _important_.

Her coming here was a risk in itself and he didn't take her gesture lightly, but the news was vital to his case. It was the banner of hope he had been praying for.

"What do you think will happen?" He asked honestly, finishing his meal and flinging his fringe back.

"Once the file is in the right hands, it's only a matter of time. What about Sharpay, did she find anyone at the club the night Derek died?" Gabi checked.

Troy sighed through his nose with pressed lips. "No-one who wants to be known."

"What came up?" She asked anyway, intrigued and he was surprised at her level of trust. Could she tell if he was lying? Was that part of her Indian blood, too?

He shrugged. "I was alone when I left- weaving a lot apparently- but I was headed to the motel across the road. I guess I never made it," he accepted.

"Someone spiked your drink." She stated, now convinced. "They must have planned it out and intercepted you before you made it to the motel."

"Intercepted?" He looked over, his wide grin flashing.

"Yeah, you know, intercepted, captured, seized…" She described innocently.

Troy chuckled to himself and met her gaze. "I just love how you say things."

"Well, I'm a PI. It's law speak." She blushed.

"I told you, I love it. Tell me how I got intercepted again…"

"You're not taking this seriously," she accused, annoyed.

"I am," he assured in a soft voice, his sad smile re-appearing and she cursed herself for ruining his happy grin- a rare sight.

She sighed and laid her head back to the concrete, just like he did so many times.

"I should go…"

"Stay…" he begged, not ready to lose her so soon. Her visit was unexpected- a treasure in his hollow existence.

"Can you say that in my language?" She challenged back with an arched brow.

"No, will you teach me?" He turned his head, his smile small and endearing.

"_Sétoo'e_." She told him, her eyes smiling at him, too.

"_Sétoo'e," _herepeated perfectly, his lips parted on his last syllable, her eyes focused there by default.

"What would you do if I stayed?" She wondered with a soft voice, her curiosity getting the better of her. This could be their last meeting. She felt like they were hardly doing business at all now- just two people, working together- falling in love.

She frowned at her thoughts, blushing at them, too. She didn't fall in love, it wasn't her way. He stupid cursed tradition had chosen Troy as her partner but that didn't mean she loved him.

_Did it?_

"If you stayed, I'd get to know you." He stated, breaking her from her thoughts.

"That's not a luxury we can afford." She warned.

"Why not?"

"It's a risk alone that I'm here," she measured. "The more you know about me- the harder it gets."

He met her eyes as they sat side by side, twisted to meet. He let his eyes roam hers, over her face and down to her mouth. The one he constantly told himself not to kiss again. Not if he wanted to keep his sanity, at least.

"Somehow I'm willing to take that risk," he semi-smirked, leaning toward her.

"You may be. I'm not. I didn't do all of this work to lose you."

"Those are pretty strong words, _mo'onahe_," he quickly jumped on her admission, his fingers capturing her chin for a kiss to her mouth. A fast, unexpected kiss that shocked her and her eyes flew wide.

"I care what happens to you, Troy. That's all."

"That's all huh?" He smiled knowingly, as her eyes patterned over his face and fell on his lips, right before her hands framed his face and she kissed him right back, harder and more wantonly than before.

"Hey, go gently on me," he husked, ripping his mouth away, moments later as he wrapped his arms around her the best he could in their cumbersome space.

"This stops now," she told herself more than him, wriggling from his hold. He watched her with keen blue eyes, hoping she was joking- hoping she was testing him. Only it didn't seem she was doing either of those things because she just avoided looking at him while she caught her laboured breaths and licked her swollen lips.

"Right…" he sighed, realising she was serious. "Okay," he agreed despite his insides screaming for more of the same- more of her mouth, more of her anything as he leaned back.

"It's cold out here- how do you keep warm?" Her question was filled with irritation and he could feel her shivering beside him, but the fact she was asking meant she was planning on staying a little longer, something he secretly cheered at.

"I have a blanket, hold on," he launched up to get it, wrapped his only blanket around her and shifted up next to her, hugging his knees.

"You don't have anything to keep you warm?" She wondered worriedly.

"Just you," he smiled back handsomely.

She pressed her lips in and wrapped her cover round his shoulders, inadvertently hugging him into her body.

"Mm, this is nice," he teased, resting into her smaller body with a contented curl.

"Are you warm?" She checked and he nodded.

"Tell me about you Gabriella Montez…" He requested sleepily. "Tell me what lies behind the PI- behind all that hair and those eyes…what do you _love? _What do you _hate_?"

"What do I love?" Gabi thought on this. "My job. God, it sounds pathetic-"

"No, it sounds real." He interrupted.

"What do I hate? Justice not being done," she quoted predictably.

"What about _you_?" He asked again knowingly. "What do you really love?"

Gabi dropped her gaze. "My three minute showers. Taking my work shoes off and walking bare footed. Visiting mom and dad…there's too many to mention. How about you?"

Troy smiled ironically to himself. "I love that I can see the New York skyline. And that I can see sky without bars. But I hate that I'm afraid out here. I hate that I miss it inside." He shared, shivering in her arms.

"Sleep now," she hushed him, her fingers running through his hair soothingly.

"_Sétoo'e,_" he told her on a breathy sleepy sigh, right before he went limp against her small body- but that which still enveloped him and held him tight for comfort.

She didn't dare guess what had happened after dark in those grey walls, but from his records she could very well guess. Not only had Chad and Trent plotted to put Troy down for murder but they'd abused him too- by getting the prisoners or even the guards to beat him, until he either gave up or fought back.

As she cradled his large strong body she knew he needed her and she wasn't going to give up until they ended this thing, for once and for all.

She was in it to the end.

/

Troy woke with a slow start- the circling gulls were awake and looking for food and their cries were sharp.

He shifted, feeling a weight against his chest and he opened his eyes, realising he had his arms wrapped around a small bundle with lots of hair and he quickly remembered his plea to Gabi last night.

_Sétoo'e. _Stay.

He marvelled at the fact she had stayed with him all night, too. It was cold, dark and uncomfortable but she had slept the night in his arms. To him, that was something.

He shifted again, thinking how he might smell, how grimy he was from his days of hiding and how he didn't want her to see that. Maybe he shouldn't have asked to stay after all.

But she looked so beautiful.

She was laid against his chest, curled up for protection and he felt a kick deep in his tummy as he urged to fulfil her need.

She'd resisted his kiss last night- would she do the same this morning? He cracked a small smile as he realised he wanted to find out.

"Good morning," he murmured to himself, thinking this was the first time in a long time that he had woken up happy.

He loosened his arms as Gabi wriggled, casting her big brown eyes up to him in confusion.

"I stayed all night didn't I?" She guessed, escaping his hold to sit up.

"You did," he confirmed, smiling softly at her sleep-messed hair.

She closed her eyes and sighed in regret. "I shouldn't have done that."

He shrugged. "I won't tell anyone."

She looked to him, catching his humour. "I have to go."

He watched as she stood and stretched, his blanket falling from her body to the ground before she turned for the exit- the sunlight breaching their tunnelled hole already.

"Gabi," he launched up after her, his movements quick and precise like a preying wolf.

She turned as she felt his hot body hover behind her.

"I'll be back, Troy." She assured, gently pressing a hand to his chest.

He caught his breath as their eyes clashed and held, a hundred thoughts running through his head. _Don't let this be my last moment with her. Let me have longer._

He cupped her face with his battered hands and brushed his thumbs softly over her cheeks, bringing a soft gasp from her lips as she looked up, still strangely surprised by his touch.

He leant down and kissed her mouth just once, just long enough to have them wanting more but short enough to keep his sanity.

"Take care out there," he begged before she turned and bolted, leaving him alone.

The quietness around him echoed in his ears where her sleeping breaths once filled the silence and his aching body missed the soft press of hers. But she had to go. And he had to let her. He just knew he wanted her back and maybe for good.

/

"They're onto us," Trent's voice was filled with frothing spittle from his anger and utter helplessness. "She's re-opened the file."

"She can't, not without me," Chad assured calmly. "You need to calm down."

"She knows where he is, I already tried to warn her not to pursue it!" Trent elaborated.

"Then maybe we ought to send a clearer message," Chad suggested.

"What do you mean?" Trent's upper lip wetted with nervous sweat. He might be crapping himself right now but he wouldn't hurt Gabi.

"I mean we show her that she shouldn't be even contemplating messing with us…" Chad smiled slowly.

"You don't get it, Chad!" Trent burst out, grasping his friend by his coat collars. "They _know. _She's taking it above us! We're fucked!"

Chad's mask slipped for a second and then his dark eyes glazed over like marbles. "We can't let that happen." He stated flatly.

"It already has, I told you, I tried to stop her." Trent repeated.

"Well you didn't try hard enough!" Chad pushed him away from his grasp on his jacket, staggering Trent backwards. "I'll finish this- for good."

"Wait," Trent frowned. "What are you gonna do?"

"Don't bail on me now, Bolton. Unless you want to be taken down for murder then you're either with me or against me…"

"I never wanted Gabriella to get hurt," Trent swallowed quickly. "Just send someone to get the file- she doesn't need to be hurt."

Chad snarled, baring his teeth. "She's ready to drop us in hell and you want a saving grace? Forget it, this is our last chance. She needs a scare, Bolton." Chad warned. "Or you do."

/

She was being followed. She had felt it from the second she had turned on Fifth Street and since then, she had chosen an alternative route to put off any would-be snipers from finding Troy. She would get to him, later, but right now, she had to shake this tailer.

"What do you want?" She gasped as the dark shadowed stranger pounced and held her to the wall.

"Drop the case," the balaclava'd man warned, pressing his forearm to her throat.

"Who do you work for?" She demanded, wincing as the arm pressed harder, cutting her air supply and then she heard the flip of a knife, the gleaming edge pressed to her throat and braising the skin there.

"Doesn't matter, just drop it or you die." He warned once more.

"Why?" She asked, constricted by the lack of oxygen to her lungs.

"Just stop, bitch!" The knife moved swiftly, slicing her upper arm and as she gasped and quickly stemmed the blood with her hand, she looked around her manically to find which way her attacker had gone.

_Damn!_ Unless she could shapeshift and turn into an eagle then she was stuffed. And she was stuffed, she sighed as she winced and looked down at her injury. _Now what?_

There was truly only one place she could go, she reasoned, fighting through the dark with heavy breaths, checking behind constantly for more followers making sure she didn't bring Troy into any danger as she struggled to get to him.

The ground was soft, broken with bushes and junk and her feet were throbbing from the longer than usual trip, her flat suede boots not giving much grip as she climbed, her head swimming with lack of air as she forced herself on.

_Please let him still be there and be okay,_ she prayed silently, knowing in the steady beat of her heart that he was, she just had to see it with her own eyes to prove it and as she staggered up the last verge onto the flat of the broken down building site, she almost laughed with relief at having made it.

"I did it!" She fell to her knees, still clutching her arm in pain. "I made it."

/

Troy listened for sounds in his hollow hole and pricked his ears up at the rustle he heard from the bank, on the opposite side of the yard that ran down the hill into the city.

He ventured out, scouting the area, seeing a small dark haired woman kneeling in the dirt and he instantly recognised her, running over to skid to his knees, his arms going quickly around her while his eyes observed her damage.

"Gabi…are you okay?" His breaths were fast and panicked and his eyes widened at the blood on her hands, which he quickly sourced as coming from her upper arm. "Oh god, what did they do to you?" He whispered, quickly scooping her up and carrying her, thinking hard and fast where he could take her to get her clean and mended.

He pressed his lips together, knowing the risk, but he headed there anyway more concerned with Gabi's safety than his own.


	9. Kuckunniwi

Hey people, thanks for reviews. I had no internet for 3 days but I see you all survived.

I saw some new names this time so hey new readers- or new reviewers, whichever you are ;)

Reckless Reader you made me laugh :D And Flakey, now it all makes sense- exams suck. Hope you did well and I cannot wait for summer yeeha!

**CHAPTER 8**

"Shar, I'm so sorry," Troy whispered as Sharpay opened her door at gone 2am, her friend on the other side carrying an injured woman.

"What happened?" Her eyes widened and she instantly stepped back, knowing instinctively not to delay his entry into the house.

"It's a knife wound, she's kind of lucid but she walked a long way and bled some doing it," he sighed, laying Gabi on his friend's couch, sending her an apologetic look. "I'm sorry it's so late."

"No, don't be silly," Sharpay waved her hand, and then yawned. "Do you need me for anything?"

"Can you get me a bowl, some disinfectant and some bandages?" He flicked his eyes up to her.

"Of course. Coming right up," she left him to comfort the petite Indian woman where he quickly found some scissors and cut off the arm of her jumper and shirt, ripping the material to make way for his aid.

Sharpay carried the bowl in just as he finished washing his hands, having rid his outer layers to attend to her properly.

"It's stopped bleeding which is good. It just needs cleaning," He told his friend and she touched his shoulder gently.

"I'm sorry they did this to her."

"You warned me and I didn't even try and protect her," he winced, touching a gentle thumb to Gabi's cheek. "She's done so much for me."

"She's ok, Troy. Just remember that. She knew what she was getting into."

"Can she stay here tonight?" He begged, swiping away the blood that covered her skin. "She's going to need to get clean and get some fresh clothes…"

"I have clothes." Sharpay announced. "For you too," she added, heading up the stairs to find them and dropping them into the chair beside him as he kept vigil over Gabi.

"You can both stay," she told him, bringing his frowning face to hers.

"I can't risk you being involved in this." He husked.

"At least stay for her," Sharpay lifted her chin to signify Gabi. "She needs you."

Troy swallowed, knowing his friend was right. Gabi did need him right now and he owed it to her to stay. He nodded and watched Sharpay pad back to her room, lifting some clothes from the pile to change into while Gabi slept.

Showered, shaved and clean again, Troy came back to watch her in some soft pale blue jeans and a thin grey long sleeve top that melded to his body, pronouncing his shape.

He ran a hand through his damp hair, slicking it back as he came round the sofa, finding Gabi cutely cuddled up, her face pinched with pain.

"We need to get you clean, _mo'onahe_," he whispered, brushing the back of his finger gently down the side of her face.

"I don't want to move," she murmured back, clearly awake and tricking him.

"You need to wash the blood off." He told her gently, wishing he could carry her into the shower himself and wash her. He jerked his brows up at his thoughts and licked his lips, trying to find more words.

She blinked her eyes and opened them to him, showing her fatigue. "You're in danger here."

"No, it's safe." He assured, ignoring her concern, but deeply touched by it.

"None of us are safe now," she worried, rolling up into a sitting position, touching her arm as the pain hit her again.

"All you need to worry about is you." He told her, brushing his knuckles down her cheek, surprising her with his touch.

He had such rough, calloused hands, she hadn't expected such gentility and she rose with his help, awed by his support as he waited for her outside the shower room.

She came out in sweat pants and a little vest, her arm sore and red around the clotted wound.

"I'll put a bandage on," he told her in a husky voice, leading her back to the sofa.

"Ouch," she curled her lip as the pain shot down her arm from the pressure on her cut, but Troy soon had her bandaged up and ready for bed, his blue eyes meeting hers as they sat side by side on the couch.

"You can sleep on the couch," he swallowed.

"What about you?" She wondered.

"I'll have the chair." He explained, pointing to the small armchair beside them.

"No, share with me," she insisted.

He smiled slowly. "Probably best I don't…"

She curled her small hand into his larger one. "I want you to."

He flicked his eyes over her face, between her two pools of brown and ached in his chest at her words. If he was anywhere else in the world right now, doing anything but running from the law itself, he would be kissing the life out of her and making the sofa beneath them groan with their love-making.

But he wasn't. And he couldn't. And he creased his face at the knowledge of it, considering she might very well not want him to make love to her especially not on this sofa of all places.

"What's funny?" She asked, bringing his gaze up. He hadn't even realised he had been smiling he mused as he shifted, laying on the wide sofa ready to accept her body beside him.

"Just me imagining a world where you would want to make love with me," he replied honestly and she jerked, just about to settle beside him.

"That's funny?"

"It is to me. I have the wildest imagination." He elaborated.

"There's something you should know," she ventured, facing outward, allowing him to spoon her in the most amazing way.

"Okay, hit me with it." He sighed out, his breath falling into her hair.

"Do you ever get…like, weird thoughts? Like random things come up in your mind?" She wondered.

"Yeah, sometimes," he affirmed.

"Like that day, when you didn't know what happened. It freaked you out…" She explained.

"Yeah, but you don't want to know what I was thinking about then…" He grinned to himself, looping his arm over her body and touching his fingertips to her midriff.

"Troy, I do know," she sighed, closing her eyes. "I know because it was my thoughts you were having. I transferred them to you."

Troy lifted his brows in silence, considering what she was saying. He remembered those vivid images so very clearly and at the time, he hadn't understood why. Okay, the curvy Indian in his arms right now had caused him a few sleepless nights as he imagined what her little sexy body looked like under those clothes, but the pictures he'd had that time were clear like photographs and so graphic, so intimate, he'd been shocked by his own imagination.

Only now she was saying they weren't from his imagination. They were from hers. Which not only meant that it made sense as to why he had felt to freaked out by the whole thing…but it also meant she was having those thoughts about him, too. The same ones that kept him awake at night.

God, why did his tummy ache at that idea, his body tense and arch against her, rubbing her soft curves like a contented cat searching for a tickle? He wanted more of her and definitely naked and if she was having those thoughts too, then what the hell was stopping them?

"Troy?" She broke him from his little desired daydream and he froze, fearing he had overstepped the mark. He had agreed to share the sofa with her. He shouldn't be gratifying himself in the process of her being honest with him.

"God, you are the sexiest woman I know," he sighed, as if this went any way to respond to her admission.

"I had to tell you because you might still have them…you might still pick up on what I'm thinking," she worried, lifting her hand to chew on her thumbnail. "I'm sorry."

He smiled sleepily, running his gentle, roughened fingers all the way up her forearm from her elbow, rescuing her nail from her teeth, where he placed her arm back at her middle, wrapping his over hers to keep it trapped. His lips brushed her ear, whispered how beautiful she was and then he kissed her neck, her shoulder and finally, he lay back and breathed out in absolute bliss.

"You can share your sexy thoughts with me any time you like," he decided as he closed his eyes. "I promise I won't hold it against you."

And with that, he dropped fast asleep.

/

Gabi chewed on her lower lip with growing worry over what today might bring. Troy was vulnerable while he remained in town and he was here because of her, something else she didn't like having on her conscience.

She had overstepped the line last night, had thrown her professional reserve to the side and had selfishly indulged in the strange and exciting feelings he elicited inside of her, but today she had to think of him and forget any ideas she had about them spending time together.

She couldn't even quite work out when she had started wanting it, it had just kind of snuck up on her and the minute he had lifted her into those solid, bulked arms of his, she had fallen prey to his charm. Well, okay, maybe she had fallen prey to his charm a long time before that, because as far as she could tell, he didn't have any _forced_ charm. He was just Troy and actually, that was more than enough to have her interest piqued.

He'd called her _emo'onahe_ (beautiful), protected her all night and he'd trusted her at her word, something that still surprised her to this day. And more than that, even if she was fighting it, she knew that deep down something more magical had happened. Her soul had chosen her mate and her transcendent powers- the ones reserved only of the man she would give herself to- had already started rubbing off on him and now he was privy to her inner-most desires, too.

That irked her. It freaked her out and she'd had no idea when her mother had told her all about the legends that came before her that this was how it worked. She assumed- having lived a modern life and not one of that on the plains- that she would _choose _who got to see her, who got to see inside her soul and know her weaknesses. She hadn't expected _this. _This uncontrollable, inexplicable _thing _that had decided to choose Troy for her.

And why him, she silently wondered? Why not someone she could really _be _with? Someone wild and free and…

She sighed, knowing he was all of those things, apart from being free. He was _exactly _what a Cheyenne male would be like- respectful, appreciating her body and her mind and letting her do her own thing without tying her down. That's what she had always hoped for in a mate, only he would never understand the rituals they had to go through just to…_be _together. He would never want to go through that, she thought sadly. He was a modern man from New York, why would he want to go back to her roots just so he could make love to her and make her a woman?

She already knew how much of a problem it caused. It was the equivalent to meeting the parents, only with a ceremony on top and it kinda scared guys off, she mused.

So while she lay there, tucked into his arms enjoying the rise and fall of his chest against her back, imagining that they could have more mornings like this, more time together, she silently told herself to say goodbye to him when he left today.

He might not know it, she might not say it, but inside she had to guard her heart because her soul was already yearning for something she could not satisfy it with.

He would be gone in a matter of hours and this dream of something more would be over. She would be a PI again, he would be a convict and they would both be escaping the threats of his brother while they tried to bring Trent to justice.

And today was the day she put the dominoes in motion, knowing the long trail of winding falls would end in a monstrous crash as Trent and his web of lies came toppling down. She had the people now. She had the means. She just needed Troy's confirmation that Jenna was in and then the re-trial would begin. Properly. Before anyone else could try and threaten their lives in the process.

"Why can't this be a different day?" He husked behind her, stroking his fingers up her arm where she curled in as shivers ran over her. "Sorry," he lifted his hand away thinking their roughness had hurt her.

"No, its okay," she rolled back, looking into his face. She picked up his retreated hand and pressed it to her throat, smiling softly. "You look different without a beard."

"Really?" He arched a brow, his teasing smile in place even as her heart beat heavily with the knowledge of their separation.

"You look _mo'onátamaahe_ (handsome)." She lay her palm there, quickly frowning and taking her hand back, not wanting to make their parting more difficult. It would be easier this way, she decided. Before she really knew him.

"Well, thank you," he licked his lips, his blue eyes holding hers. "How's your arm?" He asked next, swallowing hard against his urge to kiss her.

"Sore," she confirmed his suspicion. "But I'm ok."

"You should be careful today." He warned.

"I will. I have it all planned out," she nodded. "Do you have Jenna's testimony?"

"Let's not even talk about that right now," he begged, wishing away his demons for a little while longer, while he could still pretend everything was normal and he and Gabi were just a new couple enjoying a lazy morning in bed.

"We have to," she licked her lips, too. "It's all we have."

"No," he shook his head, pressing his thumb to her chin to part her lips. "We have this, too," he told her before he curled his body down, grazing his lips against hers and groaning at the enjoyable whirl in his body as he did so, kissing her more deeply as she responded in turn.

He shifted in the small space they shared, pressing into her body with his that was so much harder, filled to the brim with muscle and she found her hands rising, seeking to feel the sculpted definition of his chest, then his arms, her fingers meeting hot hard flesh at every turn. She arched up against him, feeling her body answering his own as he rubbed against her and in that moment, she left her body and pictured something else in her mind. Those rough hands running up her ribs, encasing her tiny breasts and sensitising her peaks. Those strong thighs pushing him deep inside of her and more than that, she imagined her own self giving into his every demand, her independence and control forgotten, her whole body given up to his hands.

"Gabi," he ripped his mouth from hers, the stark images in his mind not ones he had conjured himself and he stared at her, shocked to his core by the depth of her need. It seemed to go so much deeper than his but his body hardened in response to it, his breaths strained as he caught his control and remembered where they were.

"Oh god, it happened again didn't it?" She closed her eyes and berated her silly mind for being so perverted. Sure, she was a virgin and she wanted to share herself with someone, but did she have to keep freaking guys out with her need to mate? It was getting embarrassing.

"Those are some vivid thoughts," he swallowed, thumbing her cheek.

She blushed and turned her face away, pressing her lips together. "I have to get up," she told him, wriggling under his weighty body.

"Hey…" he leaned back, watching her escape the prison of the sofa, closing his eyes in regret.

She paused on the edge of the sofa and lay her head to her hands. "I can't stop them, they just come," she told him emotionally, upset at the strength of her feelings.

"It's okay," he reached out and brushed his hand down her arm, pulling her hair back gently so that when she looked over her shoulder he could see the perfect arch of her cheek. "I'm not freaked out."

"I am," she offered with a sad smile. "This just…it can't happen, okay?"

He squinted, not wanting to agree with her because he very much _did _want it to happen but he couldn't work out why her visions were connected with her reticence to make out beyond a few hot kisses.

"Are you…" He rubbed his lips together. "Do you want to be married, before you have sex?" He asked boldly.

She shot him a look and then blinked; trying to find words he would understand.

"It's tradition in my tribe to have a ceremony." She explained, figuring this was the last time she would see him anyway, so what would it hurt for him to know? "When the female finds her mate, she takes him to the tribe and they perform a ceremony, welcoming him into the tribe and cleansing his soul…"

"Sound good to me," he interjected, making her frown to which he zipped his lips.

"The tribe give their formal blessing for the female and male to mate and they go off into a tent and they…make love that night."

"Wow, really? So everyone can hear?" He mused.

"It's considered a test. If you don't…make love then the union is doomed." She expanded.

"Oh," he pursed his lips, his brows rising sharply. "No pressure."

"But the next day, the female is celebrated into womanhood…"

"Wow, that's…pretty cool," he tilted his head, bemused.

"The visions I'm having…they won't stop until…" She took a big breath in, afraid to continue.

"Until we make love." He finished for her.

"Exactly," she twisted and sighed out. "It's a daunting thing for a guy to have to do just to get to sleep with me," she added.

He met her gaze and held it, blinking only once. "To the contrary. I think that's the least a guy could do to get to be with you."

"You're just saying that," she accused, rising to stand, not wanting to say anymore because she knew it was pointless.

"_Galilahi_…" He called, freezing her as she meant to walk away. She had never heard anyone call her that before. No-one but her parents and their tribe. She turned, swallowing hard as the drum beat of her heart told her she belonged with this man, whether she liked it or not.

"How do you know that name?" She accused.

"I did my homework, I told you." He sat up, ready to launch up and she watched his powerful body as he came toward her, his treads light even where his body was heavy.

"It doesn't change anything. We're just strangers who met in the night," she described.

"I've read about your life, Gabi. I know what your traditions are and your beliefs and

you can't scare me off with the rituals your tribe take to formalise a relationship." He remarked.

"We don't even have a relationship," she denied. "What we have means nothing in the scheme of things. We have nothing," she added.

He nodded, accepting her denial and some little way agreeing with her. She was right, what did they have apart from some hot kisses and even hotter daydreams? They were nothing but two people crossing paths for the same end.

But something in him told him they had a damn site more than that, too and that part of him ached to fight for her; and whatever they had left to fight for.

"You're wrong you know," he smiled softly, confident in his words as his eyes held hers. "One day you'll see it."

"We don't have time for what if's, Troy. Today is the day we say goodbye and finish this thing for good." She reminded him.

He squinted, accepting her decision. "What if it all goes wrong? Will you come and see me in prison?" He wondered.

"It's not going to go wrong. Now tell me what you found out yesterday," she demanded, surprising him with her focus.

"Jenna won't be giving testimonial," he obliged to answer her question from before. "She's dying, Gabi," he sighed, running a hand over his face. "But she gave me a tape. I haven't watched it, I trust you to do what's right," he added handing her the video cassette.

"You have to watch it," she frowned confusedly.

"You know what?" he smiled cynically. "I'd really rather not know."

Gabi nodded her understanding, pressing her lips in as her forehead crinkled in concern. "I'll take care of it."

"I know you will." He confirmed.

"I have to go." She repeated, standing stock still.

"Goodbye, Gabriella," he smiled a sad, lopsided smile at her retreat, brushing his thumb down her cheek.

"Goodbye, _Kuckunniwi,_" she stepped forward and quickly kissed his mouth, just as quickly turning to go, her dark hair imprinted into his mind as she went.

_Kuckunniwi? _Now what in the hell did that mean?

/

"So you decided to frame me for your dirty little deed, did you?"

Troy held his gun to Trent's kidneys, guiding him away from his usual path to his car, away from any cameras or onlookers.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Trent breathed.

"You thought Gabriella would find me and hand me over, didn't you _bro_? You didn't bank on her asking questions."

"She's too damn nosey, the little bitch," Trent agreed, tensing under Troy's threat.

"Call off your men," Troy told him, a cold whisper to his ear.

"I don't have any men." Trent argued.

"Whoever you had follow her and slash her last night, you call him off, okay?" Troy asked again.

"And what? The bitch keeps digging until she finds all the answers?" Trent asked back.

"You get me in return," Troy bargained.

Trent laughed. "Oh, yeah, sure!"

"I mean it. She's off the hook. You hand me in. Good deal."

"Do you have a soft spot for my partner, Troy?" Trent asked, only Troy jabbed him in the back with his gun.

"You involved somebody who didn't need to be involved."

"You know none of this would ever have happened if it weren't for you?" Trent smiled, still stiff in his capture.

"We had some rivalries, Trent, but this goes way beyond anything that happened in High School. Why do you even hate me this much?"

"Because _I _was meant to be the good brother. I got into law school, I ran the PD, I got awards and admiration…but I never got the girls…" Trent bemoaned.

"And there was you- a gambling drunk with women flocking and you had to go and fall in love. As if I was going to let you be happy," he snarled.

"You ruined everything when you got famous and suddenly everybody cared about you and nobody cared about little old me."

"I can't help that I fell in love," Troy argued, shocked at Trent's twisted logic.

"I _paid _her, Troy." Trent shared. "I paid her to seduce you so that her and her jock boyfriend could have the dream wedding they always wanted only I planned to steal her from you all along. I wanted you to have everything and then lose it all…and you know what? It worked!"

"If Derek hadn't turned up and ruined the ruse, I would never have had to kill him but you know what? Even that was a blessing because all I had to do was put you in the frame and let my police buddies do the rest…It was so easy, it hurt to watch. With you and Derek both out of the picture, I had Jenna to myself."

"She never loved you," Troy spat, angry at Trent's words but not shocked by them.

"We used _your_ money to have _our_ baby, Troy. Ours. You couldn't even let me have that, could you?" he mused.

"What are you talking about?" Troy frowned.

"Oh god, she didn't tell you!" Trent laughed again. "She told me she did. That's why she fell ill you see, after she sent you the letter…"

"What letter?" Troy roared, frustrated at the riddles Trent was talking in. "Did you make Jenna _sick_?" He added, horrified.

"Someone had to shut her up."

"What didn't she tell me?" Troy demanded.

Trent exacted a sharp elbow jab into Troy's stomach, the blow barely affecting him but surprising him all the same. In the next second, he had rammed his heel into Troy's toe and knocked the gun from his fingers, leaving Troy to wrestle him to the ground with his brute strength.

"You're not getting away with this!" Troy growled, pinning Trent down and punching him in the face, the sting in his hand a satisfying pain.

"It's too late Troy. Jenna's as good as dead and by the time you find her, so will Gabriella be. You're too late. You killed them both."

"You're lying!" Troy roared, lifting Trent by the lapels and slamming him into the ground again where he pinned him down.

"Better go and find her, then…" Trent gloated.

"Not without throwing your sorry ass in jail," Troy curled his lip.

"You have nothing on me." Trent denied glibly.

"That's where you're wrong," Troy grinned, blowing a whistle through his fingers, two large men approaching form apparently nowhere. "You're not the only one with friends on the inside." He whispered, and then turned to the men.

"Guess who I found?" He told one of the men who Trent could now see was dressed in an officer's uniform. "Troy Bolton, prison escapee."

"Yes, sir." The man agreed and Trent's face fell.

"I'm Trent, not Troy! He's Troy!" Trent pointed to his brother.

"They don't care, _bro_." Troy smiled menacingly. "By the time they printed you and found that out, I'll have everything I need to keep you inside. Take him away, boys."

Troy looked to the sky and saw the dark clouds drawing in and he knew he didn't have long. Gabi was in danger and he had to get to her. He had to save the woman he loved.

/

She had everything she needed now.

Jenna's tape, Ryan and Sharpay's new interviews. All of the evidence she had gathered during her search for Troy.

And now it was going into the right hands.

Her contact from the White House was meeting her, today, right now in fact and she had chosen her disguise well to prevent any more attempts of threat before she got to him. The beret covered the long brown haired wig she wore, her lips were painted red and her eyes lined black- a look she wouldn't normally wear but changed her appearance dramatically. She didn't look like an ethnic America Indian anymore. She looked like an exotic import from France, going about her business with her large black handbag and her stylish high-waisted flared jeans teamed with a frilled black sheer shirt and heeled boots on her feet.

She licked her lips, checking the sky and smelling the air, squinting as she felt the hairs on her neck rise and she walked faster, knowing she was being followed now, even though she was so close to her target.

She didn't know how they recognised her; she didn't have time to think about it. All she could do was march on, praying inwardly that she made it before she was killed.

She frowned as she wondered if her life was a fair trade for Troy's freedom and she considered it might be. How he had suffered, how they had punished him, she knew she would do the same again tomorrow to free an innocent man and secure his future. Troy had so much to live for, so much to learn. The world was not a dark and dangerous place like he thought it was, there was light, too. There was love.

Only she hadn't been able to give him enough of it and she secretly ached to give him more. She didn't want to die yet. She wanted to be there for him, even though she had decided to give him up. That had been a stupid idea, she mused to herself. The second she had stepped outside, away from his powerful body and his intriguing mind she had felt the loss deep inside.

She already knew they were destined. She couldn't explain it, couldn't justify it and she definitely had no reason for it but it was what it was. And she knew he wanted her just as badly. Maybe not forever, maybe not for love, but enough to go through the ritual to become her other.

And she had never considered letting him until this moment. This moment when she could feel more than hear the breaths of her follower. This moment when life could mean death in a matter of seconds. This moment when she considered of all the men she had met, all of the dates she had been on and having never found anything like that she shared with Troy.

Which was all the more shocking because it had erupted from nowhere. One minute they had been stood there in the dark exchanging information, planning their coup and the next he had been kissing her with a sweet passion she had never felt before.

She was running now, the sands of time whittling away as she strived to reach her destination before it was too late, before everything she had done was all in vain.

"Rupert!" She called his name as she rounded into the square, seeing him rise from the fountain where they had agreed to meet, hard footsteps behind her now as her lungs screamed in pain.

_I want him, oh god, don't let me die without having him._ Her mind whirred with thoughts beyond the task at hand and she gasped, her wild eyes meeting those of her accomplice as he watched her, frozen with shock.

"Take it!" She instructed of her bag, mere meters away. "Don't save me!"

Rupert opened his mouth wide and caught the bag as she flung it at him, sharply twisting to accost her attacker to allow Rupert to get away.

_Good, there was only one, _she thought silently, then watched as another crawled from the shadows.

"Run!" She screamed to her partner who was already making his getaway and she faced the two men with a dark look. "You ever fought with a Montez?" She asked.


	10. Lucky

So it's coming to an end now…just a short epilogue after this :')

Bluebell: yes it's a tribal thing, total fantasy ;)

And I am glad you all love the Native American thing cos I love it too, I just don't know enough about it!

**CHAPTER 9**

_What in the hell?_

Troy watched as Gabi ran up to the fence surrounding his hiding place, quickly crawling under the wire and heading over to him, her breaths tight and painful as she swallowed and tried to speak.

"We have to get out of here!" She told him and his eyes flicked over her, seeing her bruises and kick marks on her clothes.

"What happened to you?" His hands gently went to her arms, his blue eyes broken with concern as he feared for the petite woman before him.

"I got ambushed. But don't worry, Rupert has the package. Everything is gonna be ok…"

"Gabi, did they hit you?" His face creased with horror as his warm hands braced her cheeks and lifted her face to his, his motion making her pause and hitch her breath.

"I got out, okay?" She begged him not to ask more questions.

"I'm so sorry they did this to you. This is all my fault," he wrapped her quickly into his arms and held her tight, an embrace she hadn't been expecting but she returned all the same, wrapping her arms around his middle and he remembered how much he missed being held this way. How much he missed being held at all.

"_Taamááhe nánéehove__(I stand on my own feet_)," she assured, looking up, blinking dark lashes over dark eyes, her red stained mouth pouted as she stared at him.

"I thought I'd never see you again," he whispered, letting out a relieved sigh.

"I had to come and tell you to run. I had to make sure you were okay…"

"I can't leave without you, Gabi," he told her, baring his emotions in this moment that had been gifted to him. She shouldn't even be here, _they _shouldn't even be here especially not like this, embraced and closed off from the world around them.

Gabi looked up to him, the man she had come to care for, the man she had secretly fallen for and she knew she couldn't let him go as much as he couldn't let her. They belonged together, her senses and her soul told her that but she wanted his safety more than anything else.

"Then I'll run with you." She offered, lifting her face to his with a brave swallow.

He flicked his eyes between hers and leaned down to take her mouth, in a strong punishing kiss that told her everything about his feelings for her. Even though it was crazy, even though it was inexplicable, when they came together this way, nothing made more sense to her than the feel of his mouth on hers.

She whimpered, struggling to get closer as she pressed her tiny body to his, her curves receiving his hands as he ran them up her sides and then tugged at the fake hair she wore, tumbling down the real curls she had, letting his hands own them.

"Your red lips are the devil's temptation," he told her in a husk, layering his kisses down her throat, flicking his tongue where her pulse throbbed and she cried out, arching against him.

His hands moulded her, brought her up against his hard body where he pressed his heated skin to hers, both barriered by their clothes but both imagining they were clean of the cloth and naked to touch.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, hooked her knee over his thigh and stretched her body to try and fit his, his large rough hands running up the arch of her back and one cupping her neck as he devoured the skin there, lower at her collarbone and then lower still, into her décolletage. His other hand lowered, grasping her backside as she bucked against him, wanting more, wanting it all as his mouth trailed her neckline.

Her eyes closed, her passion rising so fast, the images she conjured were broken but just as sharp, just as clear and every bit as erotic as those she'd had before and this time, they didn't break as they shared those thoughts and kissed again, Troy flicking his tongue into her mouth to deepen the kiss.

"I want you," Gabi sighed, her dark eyes latching to his, her breaths hard and heavy just like his body was against hers and he groaned at her admission, wishing they could complete their desire right here, in this cold and broken down yard where they had met and dare he say it- fallen in love.

"Oh isn't this just perfect?" Another voice echoed across the misty plot and Troy gasped, dropping Gabi from his body quickly and taking big dragging breaths to regain his control as he quickly caught his stance and gently positioned her behind him.

"Trent?" Troy called, not seeing the figure of his brother in the dark, but knowing it was him who was speaking.

"You didn't actually think they would hold me, did you, Troy?" Trent mused from the unknown darkness as Troy flitted his eyes around him to try and source his voice.

"Go," he whispered to Gabi, pointing to a pipe nearby where she could hide.

"No!" She argued, placing her small hands to his back, pressing her cheek to his skin and making him close his eyes at her protectiveness over him. She was the only person who had tracked him down with the intent to help him and along the way he'd fallen for her raven beauty. But he would do anything to see her safe-only convincing her to hide was a task in itself.

"Why don't you just come out and face me, _bro_?" He called to Trent, quickly turning to Gabi while his brother plotted his next move.

"Please, Gabi. I can't protect you." He urged

"But I can protect you," she told him with earnest brown eyes and he frowned, not sure what she meant.

"Lovers Tiff?" Trent was behind them now and Troy swirled to face him, off guard at his approach.

"It's only a matter of time now, Trent." Troy arched one of his thick brown brows, his jaw setting and his fresh stubble catching the moonlight as he did so.

"I know all about you and Gabriella," Trent nodded knowingly. "I knew from the moment she lied to me about not seeing you. Remember that Gabriella?"

Gabi closed her eyes and took a breath, coming out from behind Troy's protecting body to stand beside him, her mind set.

"I remember, Trent. Remember when you told me all those lies about Derek?" She added, flicking a look to Troy. "_Ma'aatánó'e (gun)_ _," _she whispered, of Trent's hidden weapon in his jean's band.

Troy took a silent sharp breath in and touched his fingers to her hand while Trent paced away, signalling his thanks.

"Well I couldn't have you ruining everything that Chad and I worked so hard for could I?" Trent mused, turning back to them. "You have no idea just what you've done, do you?"

"We brought out the truth," Gabi frowned, defending her work.

"But all you needed to do was find him and put him back in jail where he belonged…" Trent shook his head, grasping the gun from his jeans and swinging it up, pulling the trigger as he did so.

In the same second, or the one before it, Gabi had predicted his move and swiftly made a grab for the gun Troy had poked in the back of his own jeans band, something she was grateful for now as it allowed her perfect access.

Before the bullet even left the gun that Trent had shot, she had intercepted Troy's weapon and shot her own bullet, just as quickly spinning to miss the bullet coming for her.

"Ugh!" She fell to the ground, immediately lifting her hands to shoot again, implanting another lead shot into Trent's shin, not sure where her first shot had landed but also not taking any chances.

Troy watched the scene with blinking eyes, his shock evident as his brother lay groaning and Gabi lay pointing his gun at him still.

He stepped forward to retrieve the pistol from the ground that Trent had discarded and he twisted, throwing it into the scrub beyond, his t-shirt riding up to reveal his muscled belly to Gabi who remained laid on the dusty ground.

"Are you okay?" He came over, ignoring his injured sibling and kneeling to check on her, his hands quickly checking her over.

"Never been better," She rolled onto her back to smile up at him, setting the safety catch on his gun before she handed it back to him. "Thanks for the lend."

"Geez, Gabi. You are the feistiest woman I know," he shook his head, waiting for her to kneel as his gentle hands helped her and then he could wrap her into his arms and hold her tight.

"I'm not gonna let anyone hurt you," she told him, stroking a hand down the back of his head.

"That's my line," he smiled; pulling back to stroke his knuckles down her face as his eyes met hers.

"We should call an ambulance." She told him of the pained Trent behind them.

"We should," he agreed, tilting his head to kiss her, finding her kissing him back with the same emotion that flooded his veins.

"_Nemehotâtse_," he told her as he pulled away again, his face creasing with a smile.

"Do you even know what that means?" She asked back, secretly shocked at his words, but testing him all the same.

"It means, I love you." He answered, brushing his thumb across her cheek.

"It's too soon for love," she told him, blinking to hide her eyes and shield her fear.

"_Nemehotâtse, Galilahi._ I don't care if you don't love me too. I don't care that I fell for you the first time I looked into your deep brown eyes. That's how I feel." He told her.

"Someone call a fucking ambulance!" Trent groaned from behind them, making them both let out a breathy laugh.

Gabi lay her palm flat to Troy's cheek and twisted her lips, knowing the words she were about to say were true, she just couldn't work out how it had happened.

"_Nemehotâtse, Kuckunniwi_."

Troy smiled a slow, satisfied smile as he looked down on her, sliding his cell from his pocket. "What does that mean anyway?" He wondered as he dialled 911.

"Little Wolf," she told him with a knowing smirk.

He lifted his brows, placing the cell to his ear. "Little?"

She laughed as he relayed the details to the emergency services, and the night went on into the early hours as they were questioned and detained and put through their paces by the officers who attended the scene of the shooting.

It wasn't until later, much later that they collapsed into bed together, Gabi insisting Troy stay at her house until everything was resolved with his case.

"I was so lucky you found me," he whispered as he cuddled her close, his lips brushing her hair as he spoke, her small body wrapped across his.

"Lucky little wolf," she sighed teasingly, closing her eyes to the world, letting her body and mind rest at last.

"Thank you," he whispered into the dark, tightening his arms around her.


	11. Angelica

Thank you Veronica, and no I do not speak Indian, how I wish! It's Cheyenne and I used an online dictionary :)

Oh and I lied, people. There's this chapter and then the short epilogue! Lol

Crystal-you know it ;)

**CHAPTER 10 **

"This is weird, right?" Troy looked up to Gabi from under his messy fringe as he sat at her breakfast table and waited for her to serve. He still hadn't got used to having normal food to eat- nice food for that matter and sitting in her house felt oddly comfortable but strange all at the same time.

"Not weird. Just different," she shrugged, laying a plate full of cooked breakfast meats in front of him, accompanied by scrambled eggs, hash browns and mushrooms.

"Wow, you sure know how to feed a man," he smiled, his eyes shining at the sight of his breakfast.

She gave him a look as if to tell him she'd had practice but he didn't want to find out how that might be, so he kept his mouth shut and only ate, in silence.

"I feel kind of lost…what happens now?" She took her own mouthful and looked across to him, missing the adrenaline rush of the last few days almost.

Troy licked his lips and smiled wolfishly at her. "We go back to bed?"

Gabi blinked, tilting her head in a chiding fashion. "I have so much work to do to finish up the case file," she sighed, ignoring his innuendo.

"Well, that sucks," he joked, making her smile at him, a rare and welcome sight he was still getting used to. He felt like they had both had their frowns set in stone the last few weeks and only now could they relax a little and actually enjoy their time together.

Something he had wished for just days ago was now coming true and he ached to hold her again, he ached to kiss her and hell, his hands burned to touch her, too but he was keeping that fact hidden until she let him kiss her again and then he might just let her know how he felt.

"What are your plans for today?" She asked, still chewing away as if the two of them sat here together were the most normal thing in the world. He drew his brows together and squinted for a moment, wondering how it was that she had always been so at ease around him. How was it she just…_accepted _him even when she might have believed he was a murderer? It still surprised him but again, he didn't want to test her loyalty or her judgement so he thanked his lucky stars she had and focused back to her question.

"I'm going to see Jenna." He explained, bringing her eyes to his as she blinked sympathetically.

"How's she doing?"

"Sharpay said she's not too good. That's why I want to see her, before it's too late."

Gabi nodded. "You're right."

He stalked her over to the kitchen sink where she carried her bowl, only he didn't have anything to occupy his hands as he paused behind her, leaning down to gently lift her hair back from her neck, brushing his lips there but not actually kissing her.

"You smell amazing, _mo'onahe_," he husked, the heat of his body penetrating the thin cotton of her blouse as she took a quickened breath in, surprised by his ambush.

Gabi licked her lips and turned, bringing her desire- bright eyes to his as she fought for breath, her throat tight as she swallowed and tried to stop the inevitable.

"I'm going home, this weekend, to see my family," she told him nervously, bracing his upper arms as he wrapped her close, his face hovering over hers, nuzzling her nose for a kiss. She resisted his temptation, closing her eyes and feeling the heady swirl of their passion fog her mind. "You could…go with me…if you wanted…" She suggested, opening her eyes again, finding him looking at her with serious intensity.

"You mean you're letting me?" He asked, barely daring to hope this was true.

"If you want," she shrugged, her whole body singing alive with nerves and excitement and desire all in one. "You don't have to."

"I want to do this more than anything," he assured her, grazing his lips against hers, causing her to reach up for more, her hands wrapping into his long, shaggy hair at the back of his head, but he pulled back, just an inch, while he looked into her face. "Is it what you want?"

She bit into her lower lip and nodded, a tiny mar above her brow as she worried silently and he kissed there to smooth the trouble away.

"What's wrong?" He squinted, brushing his lips against her ear where she jolted in response, a breathy sigh following.

"The ceremony…" She swallowed, closing her eyes again and arching her neck as his ghosting lips toured lower. "Are you sure you want to go through all that?"

He flicked his tongue right against her throbbing pulse where he knew her weakness lay and she cried out, her knees giving way where his arms held her up, his mouth finally taking hers in a slow, tender kiss that answered her question before he did.

"I'm sure." Was all he said in his whispery voice, distracted now by kissing her and not caring much about anything else as her fingers wound through his mane and her body pressed to his.

"Troy," she pulled away, eyes alight, body softened with their foreplay, her swollen lips parted with the protestation she couldn't quite utter.

"I know, it's heaven and hell all at once, _Galilahi_," he accepted, loosening his arms to free her with a longing sigh.

"Two more days," she told him, surprising him with her honesty at how much she wanted this too, although he already knew it from her visions and her touch.

"I waited two years for you. I think I can wait two more days," he grinned, grasping her close again quickly and surprising her with a quick, hard kiss. "Just don't wear those goddamn see-through blouses anymore, huh?" He teased.

Gabi smiled at his blatant attraction to her, her heart throbbing with the knowledge she had chosen the right man to _be _with. Well maybe hadn't even chosen him, but had been placed with him and that's all that mattered now. They would be together, officially, once the ceremony was done.

"See you later, _Kuckunniwi_," she smiled felinely as she pushed against his arms and slid from his hold. "Keep the bed warm."

He turned and smiled bemusedly at her, shaking his head. Just what in the hell did that mean?

"I'll be wanting to slip right in there with you later," she added with her distant voice right before she shut her front door behind her, leaving him aching with need. He smiled tightly and silently cursed her, looking forward to their weekend more than ever.

/

"Mommy?"

The small, dirty blonde haired girl was in the hallway, lost as Troy headed with sure steps towards Jenna's room. Troy knew she didn't have long. He was just glad he could come in here a free man and not have to watch over his shoulder the whole time.

"Hey, are you lost?" Troy crouched to be on the girl's level, smiling to soften his hard face.

"I want my mommy," the girl told him, tears brimming her eyes as she clutched a well-worn towelling bear to her chest.

"Who's your mommy?" He wondered, reaching his finger out to tickle her bear. "He's cute."

The girl swallowed. "Jenna," she told him and he frowned bemusedly. _This _was Jenna's child? He smiled, thinking that Trent was a lucky guy.

"I know where your mom is," he told her in soft tones. "What's his name?" He asked of her bear.

"Daddy," she told him, making him chuckle.

"That's a great name. Let's go find mom, huh?" He suggested and awkwardly rose, wondering how to make her follow. Should he pick her up?

She answered his question for him as she stuck one thumb in her mouth; her bear crushed under her arm and held up her other hand to him.

"I'm Troy, by the way," he told her as he took her impossibly small hand in his. "What's your name?"

"Angelica," she told him, around her thumb.

"I'm a friend of your mom." He added conversationally as they walked.

"Mommy, mommy, mommy," she skipped beside him excitedly and he smiled down on the beautiful girl, taken by her charm.

"Okay, here we are," he pushed open Jenna's door with gentle fingers and watched as the girl ventured inside, running toward her mother who leaned over the side of the bed to reach her.

Troy came inside and closed the door, lifting the small girl onto the bed. "I found her outside."

Jenna looked weak. Her eyes were pale and her skin was loose and he couldn't help but be shocked at her level of illness.

"Mommy, Troy brought me all the way to you He's a very nice man," Angelica told her mother excitedly.

Jenna managed a faint smile and looked up to Troy as she touched Angelica's curls. "He is a very nice man." Jenna agreed. "I'm so glad you got to meet her."

"Me too," Troy nodded pocketing his hands awkwardly. "I guess I get to be the cool uncle!" He joked.

Jenna's face creased and he squinted at her, wondering if she was in pain.

"You're her father, Troy." She told him, her voice whispery. "She's the reason Trent wanted a baby at all, because he couldn't bear seeing me with your child…"

Troy stared at her with dumfounded shock, his eyes lifting to her face as his breaths quickened and he begged her to say more.

"But how..?" He frowned quizzically.

"Daddy?" Angelica looked up, confused too while Jenna tried to explain to them both.

"Shh, honey," Jena told the girl then looked to Troy. "After you left, I took a test and I knew she was yours…I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner but you know what Trent was like…he wanted to pretend it wasn't true…I wrote you, I thought that's why you escaped…"

"That's what you were trying to tell me!" He gasped. "And Trent- he mentioned something and I didn't understand…geez Jenna how could you keep this from me?"

Angelica began sobbing in Jenna's lap and she quickly transferred her attention to comforting the little girl. "It's okay, sweetie. Troy is your daddy and he loves you, remember? Remember what I told you?"

"That he loves me but he can't be here," Angelica repeated obediently, taking little calming breaths.

"I'm here…" Troy frowned, still in shock, still processing the news that Jenna had tried to inform him of but that still hit him for six now as he stood and accepted his fate.

Jenna looked up from her comforting of Angelica and nodded, pressing her lips together. "I'm sorry you had to find out this way."

"I can't believe I missed it all…that I missed all this…" He berated.

"It's not too late," Jenna encouraged. "If you want, that is…"

"I'm here now," Troy swallowed on his tight throat, every emotion under the sun coursing through him as he looked again at the little girl, only this time in a completely different light. "I have a lot of lost time to make up for, but I'm here now…"

"Your daddy's here, now." Jenna repeated to their daughter, tears coming to her own eyes as Angelica kneeled on the bed and shot her arms up, aiming for a hug from Troy.

He quickly leaned over and touched his hands to her back, holding her carefully against him. "Hi, I'm your daddy," he smiled emotionally into her face.

"You're weird," she decided, crawling back up the bed to cuddle into Jenna's arms where Jenna laughed softly.

"You're going to have to look after her for me, Troy. When it's over." Jenna added.

He blew out a bewildered breath; shocked at her faith in him. "This is a lot to take in…"

"I know. But I need to know that you'll be there for her, that she'll have someone when…" Jenna tailed off, not wanting to say those real, final words in front of her child.

"How am I meant to tell her?" He shook his head, sad tears coming to his eyes at the thought of losing Jenna and just when he had found out this monumental news.

Jenna swallowed her own tears back, putting on a brave face. "You'll know. You'll be an amazing dad."

"I just wish I knew…I wish I could have been here sooner and stopped this happening," he pained.

"I'm sick, Troy. I always have been. Trent didn't do this. My heart wasn't right after I had Angelica and we knew it might be too much to try again. But I wouldn't change a second of it. I loved you and I have her as a result and I wouldn't want it any other way," Jenna assured.

"I don't know that I can do this, Jen. What if I mess it up?" He begged.

"You have a lot of people who care about you, Troy," she reminded him. "They'll help you out."

He whooshed out a breath and ran a hand through his hair, still bewildered by the events that had landed on him today.

"What do I do now?" He wondered.

"Just keep coming by. Get to know us," Jenna stroked Angelica's arm as she suckled her thumb. "She's been dying to meet you."

Troy nodded, awed by the tiny being laying next to Jenna on the bed, his mind whirling with the knowledge she would soon be his responsibility.

"I have to go away this weekend. My girlfriend and I…we're getting committed." He explained and realised it sounded like they were being taken into a mental health ward. "I mean…it's an Indian thing…" He added nervously.

"I wish you both a happy future," Jenna whispered, closing her eyes to sleep. "See you when you get back."

"Yeah…" Troy agreed as he graced Jenna time to sleep. "See you when I get back…"

That is, if he ever went away. He wasn't sure how Gabi might feel about this sudden new development in his life and all of a sudden, he didn't know if she would still want the same things as she did before.

They had only just turned a corner out of the grave danger they had both been in just two nights ago; and were only just finding their way together. He wasn't sure if they could survive this, too.

But he knew as he swallowed against his uprising emotions for Angelica, that he couldn't let her go to anyone else. He wanted to be her father and start a new beginning with her in his life; the same way he wanted to start with Gabi in his life.

He just hoped she felt the same.

/

"You will never guess what!" Gabi jumped on him as he closed the front door to her apartment, her small hands clasping his forearms as he raised his brows gently and waited for her to finish. "I have a new client!"

It was something she had worried about when Trent had been imprisoned but he had assured her she would get the work once the dust had settled. Obviously today's day at the office had turned up more than just finishing up her file notes.

"That's amazing, Gabi. I'm pleased for you," He smiled, still not 100% connected to the real world.

"What's wrong?" She asked right away and he pressed his lips in, gesturing for her to sit down where he followed her to the couch.

"Look, this might change things…for us," he warned solemnly, lifting one corner of his mouth as he let his blue eyes meet hers and hold her gaze as he tried to find the right words. Words that might soften the blow.

"Troy?" She frowned worriedly, hurt apparent in her brown depths.

He swallowed, his throat roughening with his emotion. "I'm a dad," he supplied bemusedly, then winced and twisted his lips. "I found out today that I have a daughter, by Jenna and her name is Angelica and I never knew. I never knew about her until just now."

Gabi's mouth ovalled and her eyes widened and he couldn't help but smile at her reaction.

"Yeah that's kinda how I looked when I found out."

"So where is she, is she here?" Gabi looked behind him, as though he might be hiding her.

"No, she's with Jenna. I need to…get to know her. Before Jenna…" He paused, sighing. "I'm going to be her sole parent." He explained.

"Oh, Troy, that's amazing," she smiled softly, seeing his evident happiness and sharing his good news.

He squinted, still in shock. "It's…a lot to take in," he admitted. "But I'm so stoked right now."

"I can tell," Gabi teased, touching his knee. "But won't that change what's happening with us?" She asked, afraid he might have changed his mind about the ceremony now he had other things to concentrate on.

He lifted his eyes and sighed as he frowned. "I don't know," he admitted softly. "How do you feel about it?"

"I…I'm not sure, it's so sudden…but I still want an 'us'," She assured.

"It's going to mean me and a little girl now." He reminded her. "Two for one."

"I know," she swallowed, processing this information through her mind, meeting Troy's gaze and knowing there was only one answer. Because as hard as it was to imagine a child in his life, as difficult as the transition would be to adapt to compensate for a needy being and as hard as they might find it to juggle his responsibilities of being a parent and their relationship; she knew ultimately she still wanted to be with him.

He was her chosen one, they belonged together and she was willing to make a go of it- through anything thrown their way.

"I want to be part of your lives, Troy." She stated then.

"Is that really what you want? A package deal?" He asked.

"If it's what you want," she assured. "If you want me to be part of your family, I'd love to be."

He cocked his head and tangled his hand into her curls, lost in her beauty for a moment. "Are you sure about this?"

She nodded, pressing her lips together and then releasing them as she leaned forward to kiss him, the touch of their lips as powerful and strong as before.

"I love you," he told her, touching his forehead to hers and nuzzling her nose.

"I love you, too," she replied, wrapping her arms around his neck and holding him for a long, long time.


	12. The Ceremony

Last chapter! Thanks for the company :) stay tuned for the next story.

**Epilogue**

"You did good, _Kuckinniwi_," Gabi's mischievous smile up to him as she took his hand and led him to their assigned tent had him licking his lips in anticipation of kissing her.

"My dancing bombed," he grumbled, ducking inside the tee-pee flap to look around the candle-lit space, a large square 'bed' prepared for their night. The silks were exquisite, the colours rich and dark and he blinked, his eyes hooded as he looked to his woman and saw her playful smile.

He had danced before her tribe- not in the traditional way they might have expected but when he had taken her in his arms to seal the ritual, he hadn't much cared about whether what he was doing was right or not, he just couldn't bear watching her for another moment without kissing her. He couldn't bear being so close and not being able to join their bodies, both of them urging for the same resolution as their night- darkened eyes had met and fixed, not breaking until the next part of the ceremony had to take place.

Her parents had accepted him right away, her extended family had laughed at his attempts to join their way but they had all respected her choice, they had all welcomed him into the fold with a warmth and affection he hadn't expected. He hadn't felt like he belonged more than he did right here, under the stars with the woman he loved.

And now she was standing before him, their trial over, her eyes burning still with her desire for him, her body covered entirely with her ceremonial robe.

"Now we have the night to ourselves," she bit into her lower lip, stepping back from him as she untied the belt of her traditional costume and then slid the shrouding garment off, leaving her entire body naked to his gaze.

"I'll need longer than one night," he whispered, his breath trapping in his lungs as his eyes feasted down her small, perfectly curved body, resting at her small, pert breasts then her flat, smooth belly; next her tiny waist and washing over her wider hips, dropping to her dark patch of curls where he knew he wanted to sink his waiting body.

Her gasp told him she could read his thoughts from his eyes and he smiled dangerously in the candle light, his feather-braided hair flopping down onto his forehead as he stepped up to wrap her against his body, his touch firm yet gentle as she swallowed and met his eyes.

"Am I everything you wanted?" She asked, something he wondered if were also part of this ceremony they had partaken in, or if she really meant those words.

His face hovered close to hers, his hands glided up and down the smooth skin of her back in erotic circles and his breath panted onto her face as he cupped her backside and brought her closer still.

"Everything," he agreed, before taking her mouth and owning her with just his kiss, and then his hands as he let them roam her bare skin.

Gabi quickly let her fingers rid his shirt and then his jeans, every cell in her body screaming out to have her body touched to his and then it came, warm and hard and she relished the feel of him in all his naked glory.

He hitched her up, against his thigh, marauding her mouth and clutching her to him, his every need spelled out right there in the hot touch of his hands and the feasting of his mouth.

Gabi cried out as he enveloped her small breasts with the abrasive hands she loved so much, his calloused skin adding another level of desire to her already rising passion. Soon his mouth was there too, sucking and kissing and she struggled to reciprocate his touches, her body just a rag doll to his ownership.

"Troy," she called out for him, clasping her fingers into his hair as he kissed her neck, then bit there, marking her with his teeth. "_Kuckunniwi_," she amended breathily at his animalistic action.

"Oh, god, I want you," he sighed, the press of his throbbing need against her belly as he held her tight and strong in his arms, his every worked muscle tensed and filled with his need, his body aching and urging to be connected with hers.

"Then take me," she invited, unwrapping from his hold, laying back into the soft satin below them, inviting him down.

Troy knelt, too, his mind a desire-foggy whirl as he tracked her, nearly wolf-like in his pursuit. His smile was wolfish and his body was taut with lean muscle as he climbed between her thighs, his mouth meeting hers to continue their foreplay. He growled as she raised her hips to beckon him and he fought his every urge to fill her, right then, his breaths tight and short and he looked at her, his hands clasped into her mane.

"_Galilahi_, I don't want to hurt you," he whispered, his hands carving up her sides as they lay, intimately wrapped around each other, just a breath away from completing their union.

Gabi shook her head and let her dark eyes penetrate his, the images she transferred there hot and wanton beyond his imagination. "You won't," she assured of her heightened desire, her body stretched and throbbing with her need for him.

He groaned and suckled her again, left another bite mark on her soft breast as she squirmed and called for him, in the guise he took now, in this tribal place, next to the earth, the sky above and the sounds around them only of their making, nothing else.

"Mate with me, _Kuckunniwi_," she begged, bringing out his growl as he joined them at last with a swift, fast thrust that brought a flash of heat over his entire body.

He forgot all about the world around him, forgot about his control, and didn't even know there was anything else beyond the pleasure of Gabi's body as he loved her, with slow, deep thrusts. His hands caught her hair, his lips caught hers in long, strong kisses and she wrapped herself around him, letting her body go completely to his touch.

It was everything she had imagined, everything she had dreamed and as he kissed her, long, short, hard and soft, she gave herself up to the pleasure boiling inside. She could no more control what was happening between them than she could control the rain or thunder, she just knew the arch of her body and the thrust of his was all she could take right now, it was all she wanted.

He owned her, she let him and as they climbed their peaks and vocalised their need for each other, their utter love; the whole tribe could hear their proclamations die in the night air. As it should be.

After, as their breaths slowed and their minds returned to what was real, Troy brushed his lips over the shell of her ear , his breaths still too tight for him to speak, his awe still too evident.

"_Nemehotâtse_," he whispered, kissing across her face in butterfly kisses.

"I love you," she whispered back, her arms clutched around his neck, her eyes wide with the wonder of what they just shared.

"What happened to me just then?" He looked into her eyes, bringing a gasp from her lips as his blue eyes flashed silver, just like his namesake.

"You became the wolf," she told him, reaching up to kiss his mouth.

"Are you okay, did I hurt you?" He tilted his head, nuzzling her nose before he kissed her mouth, then her forehead.

"No," she shook her head. "It didn't hurt at all."

"Do you think they heard?" He arched his brow, bringing a smile to her lips as she played with his feathered hair, their bodies still wrapped together, intimate and skin to skin.

"Perhaps we should do it again, to make sure," she suggested knowingly.

He groaned and lay a kiss to her shoulder. "I'm not sure I like what happens to me when I lose control like that…"

"I do," she assured with a feline smile. "It's very sexy."

"You know what, _Galilahi_?" He kissed her mouth, then trailed down to her neck, just as her hands ran up his arms and started their passions all over again. "You can be very persuasive," he finished his thought.

"Softly, this time, _Kuckunniwi_," she whispered into his ear, rising to take him into her body again. "Softly like the wind…"

It was slow and sweet and possibly more mind-blowing than the first time they came together and this time, they weren't heard by the fast-sleeping tribe, the moment was theirs and theirs alone.

But as Troy cradled her in his arms, tucked safely into his chest, he thanked whoever was listening above for bringing him this moment.

The ceremony- the dance, meeting the parents and the elders and being formally accepted, it all made so much sense now that he had shared himself with her, with _Galilahi. _It was incredible, unbelievable and the way she nestled into his body right now, he'd dance a million ceremonies to have that.

As he placed a loving kiss into her hair, he knew he would end up coming back here, with his daughter to teach her all about the Cheyenne way. He had found love by it, he had made love by it and he wanted to teach that to Angelica and commit to Gabi in the best way he knew how; by living his life with her, her way.

"Sleep now, _Kuckunniwi_," Gabi whispered into the dark, sensing his thoughts. "We have our whole lives to share."

He ran his hand up and down her arm tenderly. "I love you so much, _Galilahi_." He kissed her hair again. "_Tsé-véstoemo_." _*We sit together/we belong together_


End file.
